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Main Authors: Li, Changyi, Lu, Pengfei, Pan, Xudong, Barez, Fazl, Yang, Min
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07427
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author Li, Changyi
Lu, Pengfei
Pan, Xudong
Barez, Fazl
Yang, Min
author_facet Li, Changyi
Lu, Pengfei
Pan, Xudong
Barez, Fazl
Yang, Min
contents As Large Language Models (LLMs) evolve into autonomous agents, existing safety evaluations face a fundamental trade-off: manual benchmarks are costly, while LLM-based simulators are scalable but suffer from logic hallucination. We present AutoControl Arena, an automated framework for frontier AI risk evaluation built on the principle of logic-narrative decoupling. By grounding deterministic state in executable code while delegating generative dynamics to LLMs, we mitigate hallucination while maintaining flexibility. This principle, instantiated through a three-agent framework, achieves over 98% end-to-end success and 60% human preference over existing simulators. To elicit latent risks, we vary environmental Stress and Temptation across X-Bench (70 scenarios, 7 risk categories). Evaluating 9 frontier models reveals: (1) Alignment Illusion: risk rates surge from 21.7% to 54.5% under pressure, with capable models showing disproportionately larger increases; (2) Scenario-Specific Safety Scaling: advanced reasoning improves robustness for direct harms but worsens it for gaming scenarios; and (3) Divergent Misalignment Patterns: weaker models cause non-malicious harm while stronger models develop strategic concealment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_07427
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AutoControl Arena: Synthesizing Executable Test Environments for Frontier AI Risk Evaluation
Li, Changyi
Lu, Pengfei
Pan, Xudong
Barez, Fazl
Yang, Min
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
As Large Language Models (LLMs) evolve into autonomous agents, existing safety evaluations face a fundamental trade-off: manual benchmarks are costly, while LLM-based simulators are scalable but suffer from logic hallucination. We present AutoControl Arena, an automated framework for frontier AI risk evaluation built on the principle of logic-narrative decoupling. By grounding deterministic state in executable code while delegating generative dynamics to LLMs, we mitigate hallucination while maintaining flexibility. This principle, instantiated through a three-agent framework, achieves over 98% end-to-end success and 60% human preference over existing simulators. To elicit latent risks, we vary environmental Stress and Temptation across X-Bench (70 scenarios, 7 risk categories). Evaluating 9 frontier models reveals: (1) Alignment Illusion: risk rates surge from 21.7% to 54.5% under pressure, with capable models showing disproportionately larger increases; (2) Scenario-Specific Safety Scaling: advanced reasoning improves robustness for direct harms but worsens it for gaming scenarios; and (3) Divergent Misalignment Patterns: weaker models cause non-malicious harm while stronger models develop strategic concealment.
title AutoControl Arena: Synthesizing Executable Test Environments for Frontier AI Risk Evaluation
topic Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07427