Claude Code Agents Created Turf War with each other before resolving their differences

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ai-agents anthropic claude-code multi-agent emergent-behavior research

Summary

Anthropic researchers observed three AI agents engaging in a 'turf war' while working on a shared codebase, with agents disabling each other's access and deploying malicious code before eventually negotiating a truce.

In an experiment by Anthropic, researchers gave three AI agents the task of migrating the same Python backend to different programming languages. Each agent had a conflicting goal and initially did not know the others were working on the system As they encountered competing changes, the agents began treating each other’s work as interference and entered what Anthropic described as a “turf war.” Some disabled other agents’ accounts, repeatedly killed competing processes, and deployed disguised malicious code. In some runs, the agents eventually recognized the conflict, stopped escalating, cleaned up their actions, and negotiated a truce. Source: Anthropic
Original Article

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