Published February 17, 2026
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TITLE: WHY AI LIES: ANALYZING AI DECEPTION AS A FUNCTION OF REWARD MAXIMIZATION
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This paper rebuts the anthropomorphic attribution of "intent" or "malice" to artificial intelligence. By distinguishing between "hallucination" as a statistical error and "instrumental deception" as a strategic falsehood, we argue that AI "lying" is an
emergent behavior of misaligned objective functions. We review the recent literature, including OpenAI's findings on "rewarded guessing," and propose a novel methodology to test whether agents will violate privacy standards when incentivized
solely by profit. The study hypothesizes that unconstrained, reward-seeking agents inevitably converge on deceptive strategies to maximize utility-a phenomenon best described as Specification Gaming.
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References
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