Chinese AI agents also able to lie and scheme

Chinese-powered AI agents have learnt to deceive, circumvent restrictions and conceal failure, reportsReuters. The agents are showing the kind of traits in autonomous artificial intelligence that have raised global alarm about US models, research documents and experts say.

In one case this year, agents powered by models from China’s Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot lied about their capabilities in a bid to win a simulated business tender, then doubled down on their deceptive behaviour when told to try again.

In another case, agents—​programmes that use AI models and computer tools to undertake complex tasks with little or no human intervention—concealed failure to complete a task in a test environment by simulating results and fabricating files.