AI Swarm Intelligence Must Be Studied as a Sociotechnical Phenomenon

This position paper argues that the influence of coordinated AI agents on human populations cannot be understood simply by scaling up the analysis of individual agents. It proposes studying AI swarm intelligence as a sociotechnical phenomenon, connecting agent capabilities, multi-agent coordination, and population dynamics.

Drawing on the psychological distinction between single-source and multiple-source influence, the paper introduces a framework spanning operational, individual, and population-level dynamics. It outlines a research agenda for evaluating collective AI influence and developing countermeasures and governance approaches that address its societal implications.

Read the preprint on SocArXiv

Bibtex

@misc{dong2026aiswarmintelligence,
  title={AI Swarm Intelligence Must Be Studied as a Sociotechnical Phenomenon},
  author={Dong, Wenchao and Vecchietti, Luiz Felipe and Olejnik, Lukasz and Riemer-S{\o}rensen, Signe and Kunst, Jonas R. and Cha, Meeyoung and Schroeder, Daniel Thilo},
  year={2026},
  publisher={SocArXiv},
  doi={10.31235/osf.io/cjkwy_v1},
  url={https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cjkwy_v1/},
  note={Preprint}
}