用形式化证明自动研究因果推断,自动生成并验证理论结果。
CausalSmith: A Formally Grounded, Self-Improving Agentic Framework for Automated Research in Causal Inference
- 结合语言模型与Lean证明助手,构建可自我改进的研究代理
- 生成7035个经机器验证的因果推断声明,通过语义审计确保形式命题匹配科学意图
- 适合对形式化推理和自动化理论研究感兴趣的学者
自动化理论研究不仅受限于候选结果的生成,还受限于其可靠评估。现有方法常依赖大语言模型(LLM)作为评审,但这类评审存在严重可靠性问题:可能误判伪造论文,检出率接近随机水平(Bad Scientist, 2025)。我们提出CausalSmith,一个基于Lean证明助手的形式化因果推断自动化研究框架。该框架融合Causalean——一个包含7,035个经机器验证声明的基础库,由语言模型辅助、人类设计与评审构建——以及CausalSmith自身,一个能自主选择研究主题、提出结果、形式化命题、构造证明并呈现成果供人工审查的自改进代理流程。由于机器验证仅保证形式命题从假设推出,不保证其准确反映科学主张,系统引入命题审计机制,比对每个形式定理与其对应非形式化科学主张的一致性。我们通过已完成的自主研究运行产出的成果评估系统。源代码、形式化库及运行记录已公开于https://github.com/Jiyuan-Tan/CausalSmith。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Automating theoretical research is constrained not only by the generation of candidate results, but also by their reliable evaluation. A common approach is to close the research loop with a large language model (LLM) reviewer. However, such reviewers remain empirically unreliable: they may accept fabricated papers and detect them at rates close to chance (Bad Scientist, 2025). We present CausalSmith, a framework for automated theoretical research in causal inference grounded in the Lean proof assistant. CausalSmith combines Causalean, a foundational Lean library for causal inference containing 7,035 machine-checked declarations developed with language-model assistance under human design and review, with CausalSmith, a self-improving agentic pipeline that selects research topics, proposes results, formalizes statements, constructs proofs, and presents the resulting artifacts for human inspection. Because a machine-checked proof establishes only that a formal statement follows from its assumptions, not that the statement faithfully captures the intended scientific claim, the pipeline augments kernel verification with a statement audit that compares each formal theorem against the informal claim it is intended to express. We evaluate the system using artifacts produced by completed autonomous research runs. The source code, formal library, and run records are available at https://github.com/Jiyuan-Tan/CausalSmith.
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