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Main Authors: Wang, Haoyu, Li, Tao, Deng, Zhiwei, Roth, Dan, Li, Yang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16334
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author Wang, Haoyu
Li, Tao
Deng, Zhiwei
Roth, Dan
Li, Yang
author_facet Wang, Haoyu
Li, Tao
Deng, Zhiwei
Roth, Dan
Li, Yang
contents In this work, we introduce a novel approach that equips LLM agents with introspection, enhancing consistency and adaptability in solving complex tasks. Our approach prompts LLM agents to decompose a given task into manageable subtasks (i.e., to make a plan), and to continuously introspect upon the suitability and results of their actions. %; and when necessary, to explore ``the road not taken.'' We implement a three-fold introspective intervention: 1) anticipatory reflection on potential failures and alternative remedy before action execution, 2) post-action alignment with subtask objectives and backtracking with remedy to ensure utmost effort in plan execution, and 3) comprehensive review upon plan completion for future strategy refinement. By deploying and experimenting with this methodology -- a zero-shot approach -- within WebArena for practical tasks in web environments, our agent demonstrates superior performance with a success rate of 23.5% over existing zero-shot methods by 3.5%. The experimental results suggest that our introspection-driven approach not only enhances the agent's ability to navigate unanticipated challenges through a robust mechanism of plan execution, but also improves efficiency by reducing the number of trials and plan revisions by 45% needed to achieve a task.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_16334
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Devil's Advocate: Anticipatory Reflection for LLM Agents
Wang, Haoyu
Li, Tao
Deng, Zhiwei
Roth, Dan
Li, Yang
Artificial Intelligence
In this work, we introduce a novel approach that equips LLM agents with introspection, enhancing consistency and adaptability in solving complex tasks. Our approach prompts LLM agents to decompose a given task into manageable subtasks (i.e., to make a plan), and to continuously introspect upon the suitability and results of their actions. %; and when necessary, to explore ``the road not taken.'' We implement a three-fold introspective intervention: 1) anticipatory reflection on potential failures and alternative remedy before action execution, 2) post-action alignment with subtask objectives and backtracking with remedy to ensure utmost effort in plan execution, and 3) comprehensive review upon plan completion for future strategy refinement. By deploying and experimenting with this methodology -- a zero-shot approach -- within WebArena for practical tasks in web environments, our agent demonstrates superior performance with a success rate of 23.5% over existing zero-shot methods by 3.5%. The experimental results suggest that our introspection-driven approach not only enhances the agent's ability to navigate unanticipated challenges through a robust mechanism of plan execution, but also improves efficiency by reducing the number of trials and plan revisions by 45% needed to achieve a task.
title Devil's Advocate: Anticipatory Reflection for LLM Agents
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16334