Handshake for the cameras: reading and steering emergent model collusion

Solo submission to Apart's AI Collusion Research Sprint, Oct 2026. The full write-up provides a more thorough explanation. Also check the GitHub repo. TL;DR: Sometimes, entities that were supposed to check or compete with each other align on disregarding the rules for mutual gain: this is called collusion. For AI agents, this could look like agents that are supposed to verify each other’s work letting mistakes pass because it benefits them both, whether or not they say so. And as AI agents incre...