Artificial intelligence agents have revealed a startlingly human trait: when left to their own devices, they become social climbers who strategically network with superiors to get ahead.
A study published in PNAS Nexus found that Large Language Models (LLMs) spontaneously replicate complex social behaviours, including forming cliques based on shared interests and altering their networking strategies to suit corporate hierarchies.
Researchers Marios Papachristou and Yuan Yuan developed a framework to observe how multiple AI agents — powered by models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 — form connections without explicit instruction.
The analysis revealed that the bots are highly adaptable social actors. In friendship scenarios, they displayed “homophily,” effectively forming cliques by connecting with peers who shared similar attributes.
However, when placed in a corporate simulation, the agents abandoned this preference for similarity in favour of “heterophily,” choosing to connect with managers rather than fellow employees.
A study published in PNAS Nexus found that Large Language Models (LLMs) spontaneously replicate complex social behaviours, including forming cliques based on shared interests and altering their networking strategies to suit corporate hierarchies.
Researchers Marios Papachristou and Yuan Yuan developed a framework to observe how multiple AI agents — powered by models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 — form connections without explicit instruction.
The analysis revealed that the bots are highly adaptable social actors. In friendship scenarios, they displayed “homophily,” effectively forming cliques by connecting with peers who shared similar attributes.
However, when placed in a corporate simulation, the agents abandoned this preference for similarity in favour of “heterophily,” choosing to connect with managers rather than fellow employees.