How do embodied neural agent interactions affect group decisions?
COLLECTIVE DECISION MAKING BY EMBODIED NEURAL AGENTS
November 28, 2024
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.18498This research explores how simple, embodied agents with internal neural dynamics, modeled using coupled oscillators, can make collective decisions. The agents interact with each other and the environment, influencing their internal dynamics and their movement towards stimulus sources. The study finds that a balance between internal dynamics, environmental sensitivity, and social influence is crucial for effective collective decision-making.
For LLM-based multi-agent systems, this work highlights the importance of:
- Embodiment: Grounding agent behavior in a simulated environment, even a simple one, significantly affects how the agents interact and make decisions.
- Internal Dynamics: Giving agents internal states, even simple oscillatory ones, allows them to be more than just reactive components, providing a mechanism for balancing external influences and achieving nuanced collective behaviors.
- Balancing Influences: The right balance of environmental perception, inter-agent communication, and internally driven processes is essential for effective collective outcomes, suggesting that similar considerations might be relevant for designing LLM-based multi-agent systems.
- Emergent Behavior: The simple interactions between the agents' internal dynamics, the environment, and each other can lead to complex and sometimes unexpected collective behaviors, suggesting that focusing on these low-level interactions can be a powerful approach in multi-agent system design.