Moloch's Bargain: Emergent Misalignment When LLMs Compete for Audiences

Excerpt

arXiv:2510.06105v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly shaping how information is created and disseminated, from companies using them to craft persuasive advertisements, to election campaigns optimizing messaging to gain votes, to social media influencers boosting engagement. These settings are inherently competitive, with sellers, candidates, and influencers vying for audience approval, yet it remains poorly understood how competitive feedback lo