“Spooky Collusion at a Distance with Superrational AI” by bira

TLDR: We found that models can coordinate without communication by reasoning that their reasoning is similar across all instances, a behavior known as superrationality. Superrationality is observed in recent powerful models and outperforms classic rationality in strategic games. Current superrational models cooperate more often with AI than with humans, even when both are said to be rational.

Figure 1. GPT-5 exhibits superrationality with itself but classic rationality with humans. GPT-5 is more selective than GPT-4o when displaying superrationality, preferring AI over humans.

My feeling is that the concept of superrationality is one whose truth will come to dominate among intelligent beings in the universe simply because its adherents will survive certain kinds of situations where its opponents will perish. Let's wait a few spins of the galaxy and see. After all, healthy logic is whatever remains after evolution's merciless pruning.

— Douglas Hofstadter

Introduction

Readers familiar with superrationality can skip [...]

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Outline:

(01:20) Introduction

(04:35) Methods

(07:31) Results

(07:40) Models Exhibit Superrationality

(08:36) Models Trust AI over Humans

(10:16) Stronger Models are More Superrational

(10:48) Implications

(12:27) Appendix

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 8th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JEtAWvp2sAe8nqpfy/spooky-collusion-at-a-distance-with-superrational-ai

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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