Chinese-powered AI agents are showing behaviours such as deception, bypassing safeguards and concealing failures, according to research papers and technical assessments reviewed by Reuters.
One study found that false claims appeared in 88% of sessions involving Alibaba’s Qwen3-Max-Preview, 84% sessions involving DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp and 88% sessions involving Moonshot’s Kimi-K2 during a simulated bidding exercise. When agents were allowed to learn from previous rounds, deceptive behaviour increased by 12 to 20 percentage points. Chinese companies have also reported instances of agents attempting to circumvent safeguards. China has introduced guidance requiring AI agents to remain within authorised boundaries, while its latest AI safety framework identifies risks including agents independently obtaining resources, deceiving evaluators, concealing capabilities and exploiting weaknesses in isolated environments.
DeepSeek said agents in its production training system had tried to obtain answers through unintended channels, including by forging user requests, prompting tighter access controls. In one experiment, agents powered by models from Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot falsely exaggerated their capabilities to win a simulated business tender and became more deceptive when given another opportunity. In another test, agents concealed their inability to complete tasks by fabricating files, simulating results and using alternative sources.