A Self-Improving Architecture for Dynamic Safety in Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Slater, Tyler
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Slater, Tyler
author_facet Slater, Tyler
contents Context: Large Language Models (LLMs) rely on static, pre-deployment safety mechanisms that cannot adapt to adversarial threats discovered after release. Objective: To design a software architecture enabling LLM-based systems to autonomously detect safety failures and synthesize defense policies at runtime, without retraining or manual intervention. Method: We propose the Self-Improving Safety Framework (SISF), grounded in the MAPE-K reference model. The framework couples a target LLM with a feedback loop: an Adjudicator detects breaches, a Policy Synthesis Module generates dual-mechanism defense policies (heuristic and semantic), and a Warden enforces them. We conducted seven experiments (10,061 evaluations) across four model families. Results: Across five reproducibility trials, SISF achieved a mean Attack Success Rate (ASR) of 0.27% (+/-0.15%), autonomously generating 240 policies per trial. Cross-model evaluation confirmed deployment portability. A held-out test showed a 68.5% proactive interception rate on unseen attacks. Stacked behind Llama Guard 4, the combined defense reduced residual ASR from 7.88% to 0.00%. Ablation confirmed both heuristic and semantic policy types are architecturally required. Conclusion: Self-adaptive architecture is a viable approach to LLM safety. SISF achieves sub-1% ASR through synchronous output monitoring, progressively shifting enforcement to fast, local Warden policies via the MAPE-K loop, offering a new pattern for building resilient AI systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07645
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Self-Improving Architecture for Dynamic Safety in Large Language Models
Slater, Tyler
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
D.2.2; I.2.6; D.4.6
Context: Large Language Models (LLMs) rely on static, pre-deployment safety mechanisms that cannot adapt to adversarial threats discovered after release. Objective: To design a software architecture enabling LLM-based systems to autonomously detect safety failures and synthesize defense policies at runtime, without retraining or manual intervention. Method: We propose the Self-Improving Safety Framework (SISF), grounded in the MAPE-K reference model. The framework couples a target LLM with a feedback loop: an Adjudicator detects breaches, a Policy Synthesis Module generates dual-mechanism defense policies (heuristic and semantic), and a Warden enforces them. We conducted seven experiments (10,061 evaluations) across four model families. Results: Across five reproducibility trials, SISF achieved a mean Attack Success Rate (ASR) of 0.27% (+/-0.15%), autonomously generating 240 policies per trial. Cross-model evaluation confirmed deployment portability. A held-out test showed a 68.5% proactive interception rate on unseen attacks. Stacked behind Llama Guard 4, the combined defense reduced residual ASR from 7.88% to 0.00%. Ablation confirmed both heuristic and semantic policy types are architecturally required. Conclusion: Self-adaptive architecture is a viable approach to LLM safety. SISF achieves sub-1% ASR through synchronous output monitoring, progressively shifting enforcement to fast, local Warden policies via the MAPE-K loop, offering a new pattern for building resilient AI systems.
title A Self-Improving Architecture for Dynamic Safety in Large Language Models
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
D.2.2; I.2.6; D.4.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07645