arXiv AI

Towards a Belief-Based World Model for LLM Agents

arXiv AI
Sep 11

Belief-State Engine: Augmenting LLMs for Principled Planning Under Partial Observability

The paper introduces the Belief-State Engine (BSE), an inference module that supplies a large language model (LLM) with a Bayesian posterior over hidden states in a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). By keeping the raw action‑observation log hidden from the LLM, the BSE ensures the agent behaves as a sound Markov policy on the belief MDP, thereby inheriting classical POMDP optimality guarantees. Experiments on the Tiger POMDP and a red‑team attack‑graph task show that BSE‑augmented agents outperform six baselines in task return, belief calibration, and decision consistency.

By Arnab Chattopadhayay, Debdipta Halder
arXiv AI
Oct 23

Steering Black-Box Large Language Model Agents with Pitfall Anticipation World Model

The paper introduces the Pitfall Anticipation World Model (PAWM), a selective guidance system for black-box large language model agents. PAWM predicts imminent failures in a bounded multi-step future and intervenes only when a potential pitfall is detected, reducing costly and often uninformative step-by-step predictions. Trained first with supervised fine-tuning on synthetic pitfall-labeled data and then co-trained with a black-box LLM, PAWM boosts Claude Sonnet 4.5’s performance by 24.3% on ScienceWorld and 7.7% on WebArena-Lite, outperforming several baselines.

By Jiongxiao Wang, Han Ding, Youzhi Luo, Yawei Wang, Yun Zhou, Linbo Liu, Panpan Xu
arXiv AI
Jul 7

ASK in the Dark: Uncertainty-Gated LLM Assistance under Partial Observability

arXiv:2607. 02686v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Reinforcement learning agents operating under partial observability must act on incomplete information, making them natural candidates for guidance from small language models (SLMs) that carry broad reasoning priors.

By Juarez Monteiro, Nathan Gavenski, Guilherme Lima, Francisco Galuppo, Odinaldo Rodrigues, Adriano Veloso
arXiv AI
Oct 16

Planning Commitment of LLM under Partial Observability

The paper studies how large language models (LLMs) plan under partial observability, comparing aggressive planners that commit to long plans based on unobserved assumptions with conservative planners that only use observed information. Both strategies, whether the LLM outputs a plan directly or generates a PDDL formulation, achieve similar accuracy across three LLMs on two domains. Conservative planners reduce failures but increase API calls, while aggressive planners fail more often but replan efficiently when priors are informative. The study also finds that LLMs treat priors almost as facts, risking failure if priors are unreliable, and proposes hybrid strategies with tunable hyperparameters to balance safety and efficiency.

By Cassie Huang, Zhanwei Cao, Yeawon Lee, Nathalia Gomez, Zhuoyi Yang, Ian G. Harris, Tiffany Do, Jiayuan Mao, Li Zhang
arXiv AI
Sep 4

Imagine-then-Plan: Agent Learning from Adaptive Lookahead with World Models

The paper introduces Imagine-then-Plan (ITP), a framework that lets agents learn by interacting with a learned world model to generate multi-step imagined trajectories. ITP features an adaptive lookahead mechanism that balances ultimate goals with task progress, producing richer signals about future outcomes. Experiments on various benchmarks show that ITP outperforms existing baselines, and analyses suggest the adaptive lookahead improves reasoning for complex tasks.

By Youwei Liu, Jian Wang, Hanlin Wang, Beichen Guo, Wenjie Li
arXiv AI
Oct 1

Beyond Prediction: Steering VLM Agents with Retrospective World Modeling

The paper introduces Retrospective World Modeling, a new paradigm for vision‑language‑model (VLM) agents that allows them to reason backward by estimating which action most likely caused a state transition. It proposes the Self‑Consistency Reward (SCR), an intrinsic signal that measures how well a policy action aligns with this retrospective explanation, providing dense transition‑level feedback. Experiments demonstrate that incorporating SCR improves policy robustness and generalization compared to purely prospective world‑modeling approaches.

By Yongjiang Liu, Jie Zhang, Haoyue Zhang, Jingcai Guo, Deze Zeng, Song Guo
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 8

Agentic World Modeling for 6G: Near-Real-Time Generative State-Space Reasoning

arXiv:2511. 02748v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We argue that sixth-generation (6G) intelligence is not fluent token prediction but the capacity to imagine and choose -- to simulate future scenarios, weigh trade-offs, and act with calibrated uncertainty.

By Farhad Rezazadeh, Amir Ashtari Gargari, Hatim Chergui, Sandra Lagen, Merouane Debbah, Houbing Song, Lingjia Liu