Reinforced Internal-External Knowledge Synergistic Reasoning for Efficient Adaptive Search Agent

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Huang, Ziyang, Yuan, Xiaowei, Ju, Yiming, Zhao, Jun, Liu, Kang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Huang, Ziyang
Yuan, Xiaowei
Ju, Yiming
Zhao, Jun
Liu, Kang
author_facet Huang, Ziyang
Yuan, Xiaowei
Ju, Yiming
Zhao, Jun
Liu, Kang
contents Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a common strategy to reduce hallucinations in Large Language Models (LLMs). While reinforcement learning (RL) can enable LLMs to act as search agents by activating retrieval capabilities, existing ones often underutilize their internal knowledge. This can lead to redundant retrievals, potential harmful knowledge conflicts, and increased inference latency. To address these limitations, an efficient and adaptive search agent capable of discerning optimal retrieval timing and synergistically integrating parametric (internal) and retrieved (external) knowledge is in urgent need. This paper introduces the Reinforced Internal-External Knowledge Synergistic Reasoning Agent (IKEA), which could indentify its own knowledge boundary and prioritize the utilization of internal knowledge, resorting to external search only when internal knowledge is deemed insufficient. This is achieved using a novel knowledge-boundary aware reward function and a knowledge-boundary aware training dataset. These are designed for internal-external knowledge synergy oriented RL, incentivizing the model to deliver accurate answers, minimize unnecessary retrievals, and encourage appropriate external searches when its own knowledge is lacking. Evaluations across multiple knowledge reasoning tasks demonstrate that IKEA significantly outperforms baseline methods, reduces retrieval frequency significantly, and exhibits robust generalization capabilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_07596
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reinforced Internal-External Knowledge Synergistic Reasoning for Efficient Adaptive Search Agent
Huang, Ziyang
Yuan, Xiaowei
Ju, Yiming
Zhao, Jun
Liu, Kang
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a common strategy to reduce hallucinations in Large Language Models (LLMs). While reinforcement learning (RL) can enable LLMs to act as search agents by activating retrieval capabilities, existing ones often underutilize their internal knowledge. This can lead to redundant retrievals, potential harmful knowledge conflicts, and increased inference latency. To address these limitations, an efficient and adaptive search agent capable of discerning optimal retrieval timing and synergistically integrating parametric (internal) and retrieved (external) knowledge is in urgent need. This paper introduces the Reinforced Internal-External Knowledge Synergistic Reasoning Agent (IKEA), which could indentify its own knowledge boundary and prioritize the utilization of internal knowledge, resorting to external search only when internal knowledge is deemed insufficient. This is achieved using a novel knowledge-boundary aware reward function and a knowledge-boundary aware training dataset. These are designed for internal-external knowledge synergy oriented RL, incentivizing the model to deliver accurate answers, minimize unnecessary retrievals, and encourage appropriate external searches when its own knowledge is lacking. Evaluations across multiple knowledge reasoning tasks demonstrate that IKEA significantly outperforms baseline methods, reduces retrieval frequency significantly, and exhibits robust generalization capabilities.
title Reinforced Internal-External Knowledge Synergistic Reasoning for Efficient Adaptive Search Agent
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07596