用小世界网络结构优化多智能体系统,提升推理稳定性与协同效率。
Rethinking Multi-Agent Intelligence Through the Lens of Small-World Networks
- 采用小世界网络拓扑,平衡局部协作与远程连接。
- 实验显示准确率相近,共识轨迹显著更稳定。
- 基于不确定性动态调整连接,适配任务难度与智能体差异。
大语言模型(LLM)使多智能体系统(MAS)成为可能,多个智能体通过辩论、批判与协调解决复杂任务,通信拓扑成为关键设计因素。然而现有基于LLM的MAS多采用全连接图、简单稀疏环或临时动态选择,缺乏结构指导。本文重新审视经典的小世界(SW)网络理论,提出将SW连通性作为MAS的设计先验。结合神经科学与复杂网络洞见,强调SW结构在局部聚类与长程整合间的平衡。以多智能体辩论(MAD)为测试平台,实验表明SW连通性在精度和令牌成本上接近全连接,但显著稳定了共识轨迹。在此基础上,提出一种基于不确定性的重连策略,利用语义熵等LLM导向的不确定性信号,在认知差异大的智能体间添加长程捷径,实现可调控的SW结构,适应任务难度与智能体异质性。最后讨论了SW先验对MAS设计的广泛意义,将其视为推理稳定器、鲁棒增强者、可扩展协调者及涌现认知角色的归纳偏置。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language models (LLMs) have enabled multi-agent systems (MAS) in which multiple agents argue, critique, and coordinate to solve complex tasks, making communication topology a first-class design choice. Yet most existing LLM-based MAS either adopt fully connected graphs, simple sparse rings, or ad-hoc dynamic selection, with little structural guidance. In this work, we revisit classic theory on small-world (SW) networks and ask: what changes if we treat SW connectivity as a design prior for MAS? We first bridge insights from neuroscience and complex networks to MAS, highlighting how SW structures balance local clustering and long-range integration. Using multi-agent debate (MAD) as a controlled testbed, experiment results show that SW connectivity yields nearly the same accuracy and token cost, while substantially stabilizing consensus trajectories. Building on this, we introduce an uncertainty-guided rewiring scheme for scaling MAS, where long-range shortcuts are added between epistemically divergent agents using LLM-oriented uncertainty signals (e.g., semantic entropy). This yields controllable SW structures that adapt to task difficulty and agent heterogeneity. Finally, we discuss broader implications of SW priors for MAS design, framing them as stabilizers of reasoning, enhancers of robustness, scalable coordinators, and inductive biases for emergent cognitive roles.
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