Safety is Non-Compositional: A Formal Framework for Capability-Based AI Systems
Artificial Intelligence
2026-03-20 v2
Abstract
This paper contains the first formal proof that safety is non-compositional in the presence of conjunctive capability dependencies: two agents each individually inca- pable of reaching any forbidden capability can, when combined, collectively reach a forbidden goal through an emergent conjunctive dependency.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.15973,
title = {Safety is Non-Compositional: A Formal Framework for Capability-Based AI Systems},
author = {Cosimo Spera},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.15973},
year = {2026}
}