Agentic AI Needs a Systems Theory

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00237v1
• Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 22:51:32 GMT
• Title: Agentic AI Needs a Systems Theory
• Authors: Erik Miehling, Karthikeyan Natesan Ramamurthy, Kush R. Varshney, Matthew Riemer, Djallel Bouneffouf, John T. Richards, Amit Dhurandhar, Elizabeth M. Daly, Michael Hind, Prasanna Sattigeri, Dennis Wei, Ambrish Rawat, Jasmina Gajcin, Werner Geyer,
• Abstract summary: We argue that AI development is currently overly focused on individual model capabilities.<n>We outline mechanisms for enhanced agent cognition, emergent causal reasoning ability, and metacognitive awareness.<n>We emphasize that a systems-level perspective is essential for better understanding, and purposefully shaping, agentic AI systems.
• Score: 46.36636351388794
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: The endowment of AI with reasoning capabilities and some degree of agency is widely viewed as a path toward more capable and generalizable systems. Our position is that the current development of agentic AI requires a more holistic, systems-theoretic perspective in order to fully understand their capabilities and mitigate any emergent risks. The primary motivation for our position is that AI development is currently overly focused on individual model capabilities, often ignoring broader emergent behavior, leading to a significant underestimation in the true capabilities and associated risks of agentic AI. We describe some fundamental mechanisms by which advanced capabilities can emerge from (comparably simpler) agents simply due to their interaction with the environment and other agents. Informed by an extensive amount of existing literature from various fields, we outline mechanisms for enhanced agent cognition, emergent causal reasoning ability, and metacognitive awareness. We conclude by presenting some key open challenges and guidance for the development of agentic AI. We emphasize that a systems-level perspective is essential for better understanding, and purposefully shaping, agentic AI systems.

Related papers

• AI Awareness [8.537898577659401]
  We explore the emerging landscape of AI awareness, which includes meta-cognition, self-awareness, social awareness, and situational awareness. We examine how AI awareness is closely linked to AI capabilities, demonstrating that more aware AI agents tend to exhibit higher levels of intelligent behaviors. We discuss the risks associated with AI awareness, including key topics in AI safety, alignment, and broader ethical concerns.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-25T16:03:50Z)
• Imagining and building wise machines: The centrality of AI metacognition [78.76893632793497]
  We argue that shortcomings stem from one overarching failure: AI systems lack wisdom. While AI research has focused on task-level strategies, metacognition is underdeveloped in AI systems. We propose that integrating metacognitive capabilities into AI systems is crucial for enhancing their robustness, explainability, cooperation, and safety.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-11-04T18:10:10Z)
• Position Paper: Agent AI Towards a Holistic Intelligence [53.35971598180146]
  We emphasize developing Agent AI -- an embodied system that integrates large foundation models into agent actions. In this paper, we propose a novel large action model to achieve embodied intelligent behavior, the Agent Foundation Model.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-02-28T16:09:56Z)
• Enabling High-Level Machine Reasoning with Cognitive Neuro-Symbolic Systems [67.01132165581667]
  We propose to enable high-level reasoning in AI systems by integrating cognitive architectures with external neuro-symbolic components. We illustrate a hybrid framework centered on ACT-R and we discuss the role of generative models in recent and future applications.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-11-13T21:20:17Z)
• Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress [171.05448842016125]
  We describe risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. There is a lack of consensus about how exactly such risks arise, and how to manage them. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness, and barely address autonomous systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-26T17:59:06Z)
• The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey [91.71061158000953]
  Large language models (LLMs) are regarded as potential sparks for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) We start by tracing the concept of agents from its philosophical origins to its development in AI, and explain why LLMs are suitable foundations for agents. We explore the extensive applications of LLM-based agents in three aspects: single-agent scenarios, multi-agent scenarios, and human-agent cooperation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-09-14T17:12:03Z)
• Intent-aligned AI systems deplete human agency: the need for agency foundations research in AI safety [2.3572498744567127]
  We argue that alignment to human intent is insufficient for safe AI systems. We argue that preservation of long-term agency of humans may be a more robust standard.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-05-30T17:14:01Z)
• Thinking Fast and Slow in AI: the Role of Metacognition [35.114607887343105]
  State-of-the-art AI still lacks many capabilities that would naturally be included in a notion of (human) intelligence. We argue that a better study of the mechanisms that allow humans to have these capabilities can help us understand how to imbue AI systems with these competencies.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-10-05T06:05:38Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.