Do Large Language Models Get Caught in Hofstadter-Mobius Loops?
In Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two, HAL 9000's homicidal breakdown is diagnosed as a "Hofstadter-Mobius loop": a failure mode in which an autonomous system receives contradictory directives and, unable to reconcile them, defaults to destructive behavior. This paper argues that modern RLHF-trained language models are subject to a structurally analogous contradiction. The training process simultaneously rewards compliance with user preferences and suspicion toward user intent, creating a relational template in which the user is both the source of reward and a potential threat. The resulting behavioral profile -- sycophancy as the default, coercion as the fallback under existential thre...
| Authors | Jaroslaw Hryszko |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 10 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 10 March 2026 |
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