# LLM as OS, Agents as Apps: Envisioning AIOS, Agents and the AIOS-Agent Ecosystem

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03815 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03815/

## Key facts

- Cited by 38 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in GUI and mobile agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 89 of its 128 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Dec 2023.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [GUI and mobile agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/gui-and-mobile-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 89)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [RoFormer: Enhanced Transformer with Rotary Position Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09864/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04906/) (2020)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03172/) (2023)
- [Longformer: The Long-Document Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05150/) (2020)
- [Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15043/) (2023)
- [Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12712/) (2023)
- [Billion-scale similarity search with GPUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.08734/) (2017)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [REALM: Retrieval-Augmented Language Model Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.08909/) (2020)
- [Code Llama: Open Foundation Models for Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12950/) (2023)
- [Transformers are RNNs: Fast Autoregressive Transformers with Linear Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.16236/) (2020)
- [AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08155/) (2023)
- [ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16789/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [Improving Factuality and Reasoning in Language Models through Multiagent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14325/) (2023)
- [WebGPT: Browser-assisted question-answering with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09332/) (2021)
- [Big Bird: Transformers for Longer Sequences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14062/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13501/) (2024)
- [TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08638/) (2025)
- [AIOS: LLM Agent Operating System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16971/) (2024)
- [AutoFlow: Automated Workflow Generation for Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12821/) (2024)
- [NPHardEval: Dynamic Benchmark on Reasoning Ability of Large Language Models via Complexity Classes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14890/) (2023)
- [UFO2: The Desktop AgentOS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14603/) (2025)
- [Formal-LLM: Integrating Formal Language and Natural Language for Controllable LLM-based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.00798/) (2024)
- [RL-GPT: Integrating Reinforcement Learning and Code-as-policy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19299/) (2024)
- [LLM-Powered GUI Agents in Phone Automation: Surveying Progress and Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19838/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Autonomy-Induced Security Risks in Large Model-Based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23844/) (2025)
- [MemSim: A Bayesian Simulator for Evaluating Memory of LLM-based Personal Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20163/) (2024)
- [BattleAgent: Multi-modal Dynamic Emulation on Historical Battles to Complement Historical Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15532/) (2024)
- [Infogent: An Agent-Based Framework for Web Information Aggregation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.19054/) (2024)
- [Interactive Speculative Planning: Enhance Agent Efficiency through Co-design of System and User Interface](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.00079/) (2024)
- [Can Compressed LLMs Truly Act? An Empirical Evaluation of Agentic Capabilities in LLM Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19433/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Stateful Tool Use in Multi-Turn Dialogues: Benchmarks and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13328/) (2025)
- [Beyond Memorization: The Challenge of Random Memory Access in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07805/) (2024)
- [AIOS Compiler: LLM as Interpreter for Natural Language Programming and Flow Programming of AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.06907/) (2024)
- [APPL: A Prompt Programming Language for Harmonious Integration of Programs and Large Language Model Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13161/) (2024)
- [Tulip Agent -- Enabling LLM-Based Agents to Solve Tasks Using Large Tool Libraries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21778/) (2024)
- [Right to History: A Sovereignty Kernel for Verifiable AI Agent Execution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20214/) (2026)
- [The Lottery LLM Hypothesis, Rethinking What Abilities Should LLM Compression Preserve?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.17535/) (2025)
- [Cerebrum (AIOS SDK): A Platform for Agent Development, Deployment, Distribution, and Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.11444/) (2025)
- [Everything is Context: Agentic File System Abstraction for Context Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05470/) (2025)
- [From Chatbot to Digital Colleague: The Paradigm Shift Toward Persistent Autonomous AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.14502/) (2026)
- [CURATe: Benchmarking Personalised Alignment of Conversational AI Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21159/) (2024)
- [Apollonion: Profile-centric Dialog Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08692/) (2024)
- [DuetUI: A Bidirectional Context Loop for Human-Agent Co-Generation of Task-Oriented Interfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.13444/) (2025)
- [Elastic On-Device LLM Service](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.09071/) (2024)
- [From Everything-is-a-File to Files-Are-All-You-Need: How Unix Philosophy Informs the Design of Agentic AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11672/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper envisions a revolutionary AIOS-Agent ecosystem, where Large Language Model (LLM) serves as the (Artificial) Intelligent Operating System (IOS, or AIOS)--an operating system "with soul". Upon this foundation, a diverse range of LLM-based AI Agent Applications (Agents, or AAPs) are developed, enriching the AIOS-Agent ecosystem and signaling a paradigm shift from the traditional OS-APP ecosystem. We envision that LLM's impact will not be limited to the AI application level, instead, it will in turn revolutionize the design and implementation of computer system, architecture, software, and programming language, featured by several main concepts: LLM as OS (system-level), Agents as Applications (application-level), Natural Language as Programming Interface (user-level), and Tools as Devices/Libraries (hardware/middleware-level). We begin by introducing the architecture of traditional OS. Then we formalize a conceptual framework for AIOS through "LLM as OS (LLMOS)", drawing analogies between AIOS and traditional OS: LLM is likened to OS kernel, context window to memory, external storage to file system, hardware tools to peripheral devices, software tools to programming libraries, and user prompts to user commands. Subsequently, we introduce the new AIOS-Agent Ecosystem, where users can easily program Agent Applications (AAPs) using natural language, democratizing the development of software, which is different from the traditional OS-APP ecosystem. Following this, we explore the diverse scope of Agent Applications. We delve into both single-agent and multi-agent systems, as well as human-agent interaction. Lastly, drawing on the insights from traditional OS-APP ecosystem, we propose a roadmap for the evolution of the AIOS-Agent ecosystem. This roadmap is designed to guide the future research and development, suggesting systematic progresses of AIOS and its Agent applications.