Artificial Agency and Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: van Lier, Maud, Muñoz-Gil, Gorka
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author van Lier, Maud
Muñoz-Gil, Gorka
author_facet van Lier, Maud
Muñoz-Gil, Gorka
contents The arrival of Large Language Models (LLMs) has stirred up philosophical debates about the possibility of realizing agency in an artificial manner. In this work we contribute to the debate by presenting a theoretical model that can be used as a threshold conception for artificial agents. The model defines agents as systems whose actions and goals are always influenced by a dynamic framework of factors that consists of the agent's accessible history, its adaptive repertoire and its external environment. This framework, in turn, is influenced by the actions that the agent takes and the goals that it forms. We show with the help of the model that state-of-the-art LLMs are not agents yet, but that there are elements to them that suggest a way forward. The paper argues that a combination of the agent architecture presented in Park et al. (2023) together with the use of modules like the Coscientist in Boiko et al. (2023) could potentially be a way to realize agency in an artificial manner. We end the paper by reflecting on the obstacles one might face in building such an artificial agent and by presenting possible directions for future research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_16190
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Artificial Agency and Large Language Models
van Lier, Maud
Muñoz-Gil, Gorka
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Emerging Technologies
The arrival of Large Language Models (LLMs) has stirred up philosophical debates about the possibility of realizing agency in an artificial manner. In this work we contribute to the debate by presenting a theoretical model that can be used as a threshold conception for artificial agents. The model defines agents as systems whose actions and goals are always influenced by a dynamic framework of factors that consists of the agent's accessible history, its adaptive repertoire and its external environment. This framework, in turn, is influenced by the actions that the agent takes and the goals that it forms. We show with the help of the model that state-of-the-art LLMs are not agents yet, but that there are elements to them that suggest a way forward. The paper argues that a combination of the agent architecture presented in Park et al. (2023) together with the use of modules like the Coscientist in Boiko et al. (2023) could potentially be a way to realize agency in an artificial manner. We end the paper by reflecting on the obstacles one might face in building such an artificial agent and by presenting possible directions for future research.
title Artificial Agency and Large Language Models
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.16190