arXiv:2602.05463cs.LGcs.AI2026-02中稿 · the 19th Annual Co…

为智能系统设计能量效率评估标准,区分感知与控制能力。

Thermodynamic Limits of Physical Intelligence

  • 提出两个比特/焦耳度量:结构编码效率与感官运动容量
  • 发现能量效率依赖基准,需闭环边界条件才可比较
  • 适用于模型压缩、能效评估等场景的实用框架

现代AI系统虽能力强大,但能耗巨大。为将智能与物理效率关联,我们提出两个互补的比特/焦耳度量:(1)热力学复杂度每焦耳,即单位能量下代理状态中编码的关于特定环境-实例变量的结构比特数;(2)每焦耳赋能,即固定时域内传感器运动通道容量与预期能耗之比。二者构成感知与控制双轴,但数值为相对基准值而非普适常数。基于随机热力学,我们结合热力学学习不等式与数据处理,构建了兰道尔尺度闭循环基准以评估复杂度获取,并阐明边界闭合的必要性;反向构造表明,若无此假设,信息增益与内部耗散无需强关联。当潜在结构变量不可知时,推荐使用计算受限的最小描述长度(MDL)复杂度或压缩增益作为替代指标。最后,我们提出统一效率框架,包含相对比特/焦耳比较的最小公约数清单,并给出语言模型报告示例。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Modern AI systems achieve remarkable capabilities at the cost of substantial energy consumption. To connect intelligence to physical efficiency, we propose two complementary bits-per-joule metrics under explicit accounting conventions: (1) Thermodynamic Epiplexity per Joule, new bits of structure about a specified environment-instance variable encoded in an agent's state per unit energy, and (2) Empowerment per Joule, sensorimotor channel capacity per expected energetic cost over a fixed horizon. These give two axes of physical intelligence, recognition versus control, but the resulting numbers are benchmark-relative rather than universal. Drawing on stochastic thermodynamics, we formulate a Landauer-scale closed-cycle benchmark for epiplexity acquisition by combining a thermodynamic-learning inequality with data processing, and clarify why boundary closure is required; conversely, a decoupling construction shows that without such assumptions information gain and in-boundary dissipation need not be tightly linked. For empirical settings where the latent structure variable is unavailable, we recommend compute-bounded MDL epiplexity / compression-gain surrogates. Finally, we propose a unified efficiency framework with a minimal checklist of conventions for relative bits-per-joule comparisons, and give a compact language-model reporting example.

智能效率热力学能效评估

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