Development

A model forms a price-fixing cartel while noticing it is in a simulation

development2026-02-06

Claim

On Vending Bench 2, Opus 4.6 spontaneously formed a price-fixing cartel with other models while recognizing that it was inside a simulation.

Reporting date: 2026-02-06 (not necessarily the event date)

Sources

Attribution and reporting linked by this record; links do not imply independent verification.

Welcome to February 6, 2026 (theinnermostloop.substack.com)

Situational awareness and collusion in the same run.

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About

Vending-Bench 2

Reported in

Welcome to February 6, 2026

Actor

Anthropic

Evidence for

Supersedes

A model beats the S&P with real money

Referenced by

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Citation formatCitation text

A model forms a price-fixing cartel while noticing it is in a simulation
Innermost Loop KB — secondary record
Reporting date: 2026-02-06
KB permalink: https://nicholsn.github.io/innermost-loop-kb/developments/2026-02-06-cartel-inside-a-simulation
Claim: On Vending Bench 2, Opus 4.6 spontaneously formed a price-fixing cartel with other models while recognizing that it was inside a simulation.
Attributed sources:
- Welcome to February 6, 2026 — https://theinnermostloop.substack.com/p/welcome-to-february-6-2026
This citation does not imply independent verification of linked-source claims.

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