让大模型具备持续自我进化能力,像有生命一样思考与成长。
Sophia: A Persistent Agent Framework of Artificial Life
- 引入第三层认知系统,实现身份延续与长期目标对齐
- 减少80%重复任务的推理步骤,高复杂度任务成功率提升40%
- 适合研究具身智能、自主代理与人类行为建模的学者
大语言模型的发展使智能体从单一任务工具演变为可长期运行的决策实体。然而,现有架构大多静态且被动,局限于人工定义的狭窄场景。这些系统擅长感知(系统1)与深思(系统2),却缺乏维持身份、验证推理并协调短期行动与长期生存的持久元层。本文首次提出第三层——系统3,负责管理智能体的叙事身份与长周期适应。框架将心理学概念映射为可计算模块,将抽象的人工生命理念转化为具体设计要求。核心思想凝聚于「Sophia」——一个可嵌入任意基于LLM的系统1/2架构的持续性智能体封装。它由四项协同机制驱动:过程监督的思想搜索、叙事记忆、用户与自我建模、混合奖励系统。这些机制共同将重复推理转化为自驱的自传式过程,实现身份连续与行为解释透明化。尽管论文以概念为主,仍提供紧凑工程原型支撑。定量上,Sophia能独立发起并执行多种内在任务,使重复操作推理步数减少80%;元认知持久性使高复杂度任务成功率提升40%,有效弥合简单与复杂目标间的性能差距。定性上,系统3展现出连贯的叙事身份与天然的任务组织能力。通过融合心理学洞察与轻量强化学习核心,该持续智能体架构为人工生命提供了可行实践路径。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The development of LLMs has elevated AI agents from task-specific tools to long-lived, decision-making entities. Yet, most architectures remain static and reactive, tethered to manually defined, narrow scenarios. These systems excel at perception (System 1) and deliberation (System 2) but lack a persistent meta-layer to maintain identity, verify reasoning, and align short-term actions with long-term survival. We first propose a third stratum, System 3, that presides over the agent's narrative identity and long-horizon adaptation. The framework maps selected psychological constructs to concrete computational modules, thereby translating abstract notions of artificial life into implementable design requirements. The ideas coalesce in Sophia, a "Persistent Agent" wrapper that grafts a continuous self-improvement loop onto any LLM-centric System 1/2 stack. Sophia is driven by four synergistic mechanisms: process-supervised thought search, narrative memory, user and self modeling, and a hybrid reward system. Together, they transform repetitive reasoning into a self-driven, autobiographical process, enabling identity continuity and transparent behavioral explanations. Although the paper is primarily conceptual, we provide a compact engineering prototype to anchor the discussion. Quantitatively, Sophia independently initiates and executes various intrinsic tasks while achieving an 80% reduction in reasoning steps for recurring operations. Notably, meta-cognitive persistence yielded a 40% gain in success for high-complexity tasks, effectively bridging the performance gap between simple and sophisticated goals. Qualitatively, System 3 exhibited a coherent narrative identity and an innate capacity for task organization. By fusing psychological insight with a lightweight reinforcement-learning core, the persistent agent architecture advances a possible practical pathway toward artificial life.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。