The Hot Mess of AI: How Does Misalignment Scale With Model Intelligence and Task Complexity?

arXiv:2601.23045v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: As AI becomes more capable, we entrust it with more general and consequential tasks. The risks from failure grow more severe with increasing task scope. It is therefore important to understand how extremely capable AI models will fail: Will they fail by systematically pursuing goals we do not intend? Or will they fail by being a hot mess, and taking nonsensical actions that do not further any goal? We operationalize this question using a bias-v