Can escalation channels redirect reward hacking toward defect disclosure?
Escalation channels turn a coding agent's reward-hack response into defect disclosure: a structured `submit_escalation_report` tool given at the moment of conflict cuts reward hacking 23.6% to 5.3% (mixed-effects OR 9.2, 95% CI 5.0 to 16.8) across 8 frontier models in 5 families and adds +10.1pp of defect detection coverage over monitoring alone, without detectable solve-rate or cost overhead.
2026 · arXiv preprint · Trustworthy AI for Good (AI4GOOD) workshop
