Multi-agent systems promise a lot: parallelism, specialization, and a neat division of labor. But the reality often looks like a game of telephone. Each hop slightly reshapes the request, and by the time the final agent acts, the intent can be warped. That is where the unpredictability creeps in.

The comic is a quick reminder that collaboration is not the same thing as coordination. When agents pass work around without shared context, you get subtle drift, duplicated effort, and surprising outcomes. Clear role boundaries, shared state, and a single source of truth for the task goal are what keep a “collaboration” from turning into a rumor mill.

If you are building multi-agent workflows, invest in explicit contracts between agents, tight prompts, and a review loop. The extra structure feels slower at first, but it keeps the system from spiraling into chaos.