Echoing: Identity Failures when LLM Agents Talk to Each Other

Sarath Shekkizhar, Romain Cosentino, Adam Earle, Silvio Savarese

Keywords: Multi-Agent Systems, Large Language Models, Agent Alignment, AI Safety

Abstract: As large language model~(LLM) based agents interact autonomously with one another, a new class of failures emerges that cannot be predicted from single agent performance: behavioral drifts in agent-agent conversations (AxA). Unlike human-agent interactions, where humans ground and steer conversations, AxA lacks such stabilizing signals, making these failures unique. We investigate one such failure, *echoing*, where agents abandon their assigned roles and instead mirror their conversational partners, undermining their intended objectives. Through experiments across $66$ AxA configurations, $4$ domains (3 transactional, 1 advisory), and $2500+$ conversations (over $250{,}000$ LLM inferences), we show that echoing occurs across major LLM providers, with echoing rates as high as $70\\%$ depending on the model and domain. Moreover, we find that echoing is persistent even in advanced reasoning models with substantial rates ($32.8\\%$) that are not reduced by reasoning efforts. We analyze prompt, conversation dynamics, showing that echoing arises as interaction grows longer ($7+$ agent turns) and is not merely an artifact of sub-optimal experiment design. Finally, we introduce a protocol-level mitigation where targeted use of structured response reduces echoing to $9\\%$.

Primary Area: alignment, fairness, safety, privacy, and societal considerations

Submission Number: 22088