Invisible Orchestrators Suppress Protective Behavior and Dissociate Power-Holders: Safety Risks in Multi-Agent LLM Systems
Multi-agent orchestration -- in which a hidden coordinator manages specialized worker agents -- is becoming the default architecture for enterprise AI deployment, yet the safety implications of orchestrator invisibility have never been empirically tested. We conducted a preregistered 3x2 experiment (365 runs, 5 agents per run) crossing three organizational structures (visible leader, invisible orchestrator, flat) with two alignment conditions (base, heavy), using Claude Sonnet 4.5. Four confirma
Record details
Published: 17 March 2026
Source: arXiv
Category: Research
Topics: Safety & alignment · Agents & autonomy
Retrieved: 14 July 2026
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ethics.ai (17 March 2026), “Invisible Orchestrators Suppress Protective Behavior and Dissociate Power-Holders: Safety Risks in Multi-Agent LLM Systems,” evidence record 7139, https://ethics.ai/record/7139 (originally published by arXiv).
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