arXiv AI

Forgotten in Weights, Recovered by Tools: Agentic Tool Unlearning for LLM Agents

arXiv Computation and Language
Aug 25

When Not to Imitate: Boundary-Aware Skill Memory for Reliable Tool-Use LLM Agents

The paper introduces Boundary-Aware Skill Memory (BASM), a method that enriches skill memories for large language model agents with explicit boundary fields such as applicability conditions, risk cues, avoidance rules, and recovery notes. This approach transforms retrieved skills from unconditional templates into state‑conditioned guidance, preventing the Skill Imitation Trap where more skills lead to incorrect tool usage. Experiments on three agent benchmarks and four model scales show that BASM improves task success rates, accuracy, and reduces attack success while cutting average steps compared to memory‑free baselines.

By Zihan Lin, Zhenyu Chen, Jiawen Wei, Xiaohan Wang, Jie Cao, Jiajun Chai, Wei Lin, Guojun Yin, Ran He
arXiv AI
Jun 30

Evaluating Memory in LLM Agents via Incremental Multi-Turn Interactions

arXiv:2507. 05257v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Recent benchmarks for Large Language Model (LLM) agents primarily focus on evaluating reasoning, planning, and execution capabilities, while another critical component-memory, encompassing how agents memorize, update, and retrieve long-term information-is under-evaluated due to the lack of benchmarks.

By Yuanzhe Hu, Yu Wang, Julian McAuley
arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 9

Not Every Change Is Necessary: Recoverable Drift in Large Language Model Unlearning

The paper introduces Propose-Then-Project Unlearning (PTP-U), a method for large language model unlearning that first weakens target knowledge associations and then projects non-target outputs back to the original distribution to recover capabilities. PTP-U aims to satisfy forgetting constraints while preserving fluent generation and performance on non-target tasks. Experiments on three benchmarks show PTP-U achieves a strong forgetting‑retention trade‑off, with 81.22%–91.03% forgetting and an average of 94.20% non‑target utility.

By Xunlei Chen, Qinghui Gong, Jingkun Xue, Qihe Liu, Shijie Zhou, Fei Ye
arXiv AI
3d ago

MemCut: Every Secret Leaves a Trail in the Long-Term Memory of LLM Agents

MemCut introduces a benchmark to test user-requested forgetting in large language model agents, featuring 456 hand-designed secrets embedded in long-horizon conversations with fully annotated evidence trails. The benchmark defines two recovery metrics—native and residual—to assess how well secrets can be retrieved after deletion. Experiments across five memory designs and four LLMs show that deletion reduces native recovery more than residual recovery, highlighting candidate coverage as a key bottleneck.

By Cheng Zhang, Xuanning Cao, Zhicheng Zheng, Hui Xiong