arXiv:2602.04234cs.MAcs.AI2026-02被引 1

从熵的角度揭示多智能体协作何时有效,发现单智能体在43%情况下更优。

When Does Multi-Agent Collaboration Help? An Entropy Perspective

论文配图:When Does Multi-Agent Collaboration Help? An Entropy Perspective
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用熵分析智能体间与内部互动动态,追踪解题过程中的信息变化。
  • 首轮交互决定熵演化,43.3%情况下单智能体表现优于多智能体系统。
  • 提出熵判别器算法,可稳定提升各类任务下的多智能体准确率。

多智能体系统(MAS)已成为利用大语言模型(LLM)解决复杂任务的主流范式。然而,基于公开LLM构建的MAS有效性机制,尤其是其成功或失败的根本原因,仍缺乏深入研究。本文从熵的视角重新审视MAS,通过分析六种推理基准和两个代理任务中不同拓扑结构下解题过程中的熵转移,考察了跨粒度(词元、智能体、回合)共245个特征的熵动态。反直觉地发现,在约43.3%的情况下,单智能体表现优于多智能体系统;且熵的演化主要在首轮交互中确定。我们得出三个关键观察:1)确定性偏好——峰值熵直接损害正确性,稳定熵则直接提升正确性;2)基础熵——问题求解时初始熵较低的基模型能因果驱动更强的MAS性能;3)任务感知——不同任务中熵动态的作用各异。基于此,我们提出一种简单有效的算法「熵判别器」,从多智能体的pass@$k$结果中选择最优解,实现所有配置和任务上的一致性准确率提升。代码已开源。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Multi-agent systems (MAS) have emerged as a prominent paradigm for leveraging large language models (LLMs) to tackle complex tasks. However, the mechanisms governing the effectiveness of MAS built upon publicly available LLMs, specifically the underlying rationales for their success or failure, remain largely unexplored. In this paper, we revisit MAS through the perspective of \textit{entropy}, considering both intra- and inter-agent dynamics by investigating entropy transitions during problem-solving across various topologies, six reasoning benchmarks, and two agentic tasks. By analyzing 245 features spanning token-, agent-, and round-level entropy, we counterintuitively find that a single agent outperforms MAS in approximately 43.3\% of cases, and that entropy dynamics are largely determined during the first round of interaction. Furthermore, we provide three key observations: 1) \textit{Certainty Preference}: peak entropy directly harms and stable entropy directly benefits MAS correctness; 2) \textit{Base Entropy}: base models with lower entropy during problem-solving causally drive MAS performance; and 3) \textit{Task Awareness}: entropy dynamics of MAS play varying roles across different tasks. Building on these insights, we introduce a simple yet effective algorithm, the \textit{Entropy Judger}, to select solutions from MAS's pass@$k$ results, leading to consistent accuracy improvements across all MAS configurations and tasks. Our source code is available at \href{https://github.com/AgenticFinLab/multiagent-entropy}{this https URL}.

多智能体熵分析大模型推理优化

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