arXiv:2506.00886cs.AI2025-06被引 20

智能体应仅在认知上必要时才调用外部工具,避免无效操作。

Position: Agent Should Invoke External Tools ONLY When Epistemically Necessary

  • 提出代理认知必要性理论,判断何时需外部工具
  • 过度调用工具会降低推理能力,导致效率下降
  • 适合研究智能体决策与工具调用的学者参考

随着大语言模型演变为工具增强型智能体,一个核心问题仍未解决:何时调用外部工具是合理的?现有框架通常将工具视为普通动作,优化目标为任务成功率或奖励,难以区分认知上必要与不必要的交互。本文主张,智能体应仅在认知上必要时才调用外部工具。这里,认知必要性指仅靠当前上下文内部推理无法可靠完成任务,必须通过外部互动解决不确定性。我们引入代理理论(ToA),将智能体视为对不确定性的内部解决或外部委托进行序列决策。常见失败模式(如过度思考、过度执行)源于不确定性决策偏差,而非推理或工具执行本身不足。我们进一步讨论训练、评估与设计的影响,指出不必要的委托不仅造成效率损失,还会阻碍内部推理能力发展。该立场为工具使用提供了规范标准,补充现有决策理论模型,对构建更正确、更智能的代理至关重要。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

As large language models evolve into tool-augmented agents, a central question remains unresolved: when is external tool use actually justified? Existing agent frameworks typically treat tools as ordinary actions and optimize for task success or reward, offering little principled distinction between epistemically necessary interaction and unnecessary delegation. This position paper argues that agents should invoke external tools only when epistemically necessary. Here, epistemic necessity means that a task cannot be completed reliably via the agent's internal reasoning over its current context, without any external interaction. We introduce the Theory of Agent (ToA), a framework that treats agents as making sequential decisions about whether remaining uncertainty should be resolved internally or delegated externally. From this perspective, common agent failure modes (e.g., overthinking and overacting) arise from miscalibrated decisions under uncertainty rather than deficiencies in reasoning or tool execution alone. We further discuss implications for training, evaluation, and agent design, highlighting that unnecessary delegation not only causes inefficiency but can impede the development of internal reasoning capability. Our position provides a normative criterion for tool use that complements existing decision-theoretic models and is essential for building agents that are not only correct, but increasingly intelligent.

智能体工具调用认知必要性决策理论

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