Authority, Silence, and Failure Modes in AI-Driven Systems

Broader work (full dissertation / SAB 2026):Authority, Refusal, and Resilience in Autonomous Systems — DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18431599 • Record + PDF: https://zenodo.org/records/18431599 Authority, Silence, and Failure Modes examines autonomous and AI-driven systems that are commonly evaluated through internal correctness, optimization quality, and component reliability. Yet empirical failures repeatedly emerge not from internal malfunction, but from breakdowns at system boundaries—where authority, coordination, and legitimacy intersect. This paper identifies boundary breakdown as a primary risk in autonomous systems, arising when authority becomes ambiguous, coordination degrades, or silence is misinterpreted…