mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Language Models, Agent Models, and World Models: The LAW for Machine Reasoning and Planning

arXiv 2312.05230 ↗First posted 8 Dec 2023cs.AI cs.CL cs.CVcited by 59

On the map: World models → World models for language agents

also in 2 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Despite their tremendous success in many applications, large language models often fall short of consistent reasoning and planning in various (language, embodied, and social) scenarios, due to inherent limitations in their inference, learning, and modeling capabilities. In this position paper, we present a new perspective of machine reasoning, LAW, that connects the concepts of Language models, Agent models, and World models, for more robust and versatile reasoning capabilities. In particular, we propose that world and agent models are a better abstraction of reasoning, that introduces the crucial elements of deliberate human-like reasoning, including beliefs about the world and other agents, anticipation of consequences, goals/rewards, and strategic planning. Crucially, language models in LAW serve as a backend to implement the system or its elements and hence provide the computational power and adaptability. We review the recent studies that have made relevant progress and discuss future research directions towards operationalizing the LAW framework.

Key facts. Cited by 59 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in World models for language agents, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 72 of its 116 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Dec 2023.

Builds on

72 of 116 references.

Closest ancestors · 6

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023From Word Models to World Models: Translating from Natural Language to the Probabilistic Language of Thought22 Jun
  2. 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Model24 May
  3. 2023Language Models Meet World Models: Embodied Experiences Enhance Language Models18 May
  4. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior7 Apr
  5. 2022Neural Theory-of-Mind? On the Limits of Social Intelligence in Large LMs24 Oct
  6. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learners28 May

Other references · 66

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  3. 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 12,865
  4. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
  5. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
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38 more
  1. 2018World Modelscited by 1,444
  2. 2022Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 1,397
  3. 2019Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Modelcited by 1,327
  4. 2023Gorilla: Large Language Model Connected with Massive APIscited by 1,302
  5. 2018Learning Latent Dynamics for Planning from Pixelscited by 1,221
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  7. 2022Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied Agentscited by 1,029
  8. 2020Mastering Atari with Discrete World Modelscited by 990
  9. 2023GAIA-1: A Generative World Model for Autonomous Drivingcited by 618
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  11. 2023LLM+P: Empowering Large Language Models with Optimal Planning Proficiencycited by 496
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  14. 2023Learning Interactive Real-World Simulatorscited by 440
  15. 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 422
  16. 2023Describe, Explain, Plan and Select: Interactive Planning with Large Language Models Enables Open-World Multi-Task Agentscited by 396
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  38. 2019Learning Compositional Koopman Operators for Model-Based Controlcited by 67

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 27; 2025: 24; 2026: 7.

59 papers.

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  1. 2023AppAgent: Multimodal Agents as Smartphone Userscited by 407
  2. 2024Vista: A Generalizable Driving World Model with High Fidelity and Versatile Controllabilitycited by 337
  3. 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning for Large Reasoning Modelscited by 175
  4. 2024OS-Genesis: Automating GUI Agent Trajectory Construction via Reverse Task Synthesiscited by 155
  5. 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systemscited by 125
  6. 2024Pandora: Towards General World Model with Natural Language Actions and Video Statescited by 83
  7. 2024Vision-and-Language Navigation Today and Tomorrow: A Survey in the Era of Foundation Modelscited by 79
  8. 2024GEM: A Generalizable Ego-Vision Multimodal World Model for Fine-Grained Ego-Motion, Object Dynamics, and Scene Composition Controlcited by 76
  9. 2024LLM Reasoners: New Evaluation, Library, and Analysis of Step-by-Step Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 70
  10. 2024Agent Planning with World Knowledge Modelcited by 66
  11. 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directionscited by 49
  12. 2025ChemAgent: Self-updating Library in Large Language Models Improves Chemical Reasoningcited by 41
38 more
  1. 2024On the Prospects of Incorporating Large Language Models (LLMs) in Automated Planning and Scheduling (APS)cited by 40
  2. 2024Benchmarking Agentic Workflow Generationcited by 36
  3. 2024Agents Thinking Fast and Slow: A Talker-Reasoner Architecturecited by 35
  4. 2024How Far Are We From AGI: Are LLMs All We Need?cited by 31
  5. 2024DriVLMe: Enhancing LLM-based Autonomous Driving Agents with Embodied and Social Experiencescited by 27
  6. 2024WALL-E: World Alignment by Rule Learning Improves World Model-based LLM Agentscited by 24
  7. 2025Do Vision-Language Models Have Internal World Models? Towards an Atomic Evaluationcited by 23
  8. 2026Why Reasoning Fails to Plan: A Planning-Centric Analysis of Long-Horizon Decision Making in LLM Agentscited by 22
  9. 2024TimeToM: Temporal Space is the Key to Unlocking the Door of Large Language Models' Theory-of-Mindcited by 20
  10. 2024From Words to Actions: Unveiling the Theoretical Underpinnings of LLM-Driven Autonomous Systemscited by 17
  11. 2025Standard Benchmarks Fail -- Auditing LLM Agents in Finance Must Prioritize Riskcited by 13
  12. 2025General Agentic Planning Through Simulative Reasoning with World Modelscited by 13
  13. 2024VIVA: A Benchmark for Vision-Grounded Decision-Making with Human Valuescited by 12
  14. 2024Cracking the Code of Juxtaposition: Can AI Models Understand the Humorous Contradictionscited by 11
  15. 2024LLM2: Let Large Language Models Harness System 2 Reasoningcited by 11
  16. 2024Unified Generation, Reconstruction, and Representation: Generalized Diffusion with Adaptive Latent Encoding-Decodingcited by 10
  17. 2025SimWorld: An Open-ended Realistic Simulator for Autonomous Agents in Physical and Social Worldscited by 10
  18. 2024D2LLM: Decomposed and Distilled Large Language Models for Semantic Searchcited by 9
  19. 2024Mind Your Theory: Theory of Mind Goes Deeper Than Reasoningcited by 9
  20. 2025Praxis-VLM: Vision-Grounded Decision Making via Text-Driven Reinforcement Learningcited by 9
  21. 2026HATS: Hardness-Aware Trajectory Synthesis for GUI Agentscited by 9
  22. 2025AmbiK: Dataset of Ambiguous Tasks in Kitchen Environmentcited by 8
  23. 2024When Reasoning Meets Information Aggregation: A Case Study with Sports Narrativescited by 7
  24. 2025Position: Towards a Responsible LLM-empowered Multi-Agent Systemscited by 7
  25. 2025Improving Large Language Model Planning with Action Sequence Similaritycited by 7
  26. 2025Thinking Beyond Tokens: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Cognitive Foundations for Artificial General Intelligence and its Societal Impactcited by 6
  27. 2025Advancing Event Forecasting through Massive Training of Large Language Models: Challenges, Solutions, and Broader Impactscited by 6
  28. 2024Towards Unified Alignment Between Agents, Humans, and Environmentcited by 5
  29. 2025When 'YES' Meets 'BUT': Can Large Models Comprehend Contradictory Humor Through Comparative Reasoning?cited by 5
  30. 2025WALL-E 2.0: World Alignment by NeuroSymbolic Learning improves World Model-based LLM Agentscited by 5
  31. 2025Simulation Agent: A Framework for Integrating Simulation and Large Language Models for Enhanced Decision-Makingcited by 4
  32. 2025Drivel-ology: Challenging LLMs with Interpreting Nonsense with Depthcited by 4
  33. 2024Conversational Disease Diagnosis via External Planner-Controlled Large Language Modelscited by 3
  34. 2024Improving the Language Understanding Capabilities of Large Language Models Using Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  35. 2025Beyond World Models: Rethinking Understanding in AI Modelscited by 3
  36. 2026Building Social World Models with Large Language Modelscited by 3
  37. 2024A Survey on Complex Tasks for Goal-Directed Interactive Agentscited by 2
  38. 2024PIANIST: Learning Partially Observable World Models with LLMs for Multi-Agent Decision Makingcited by 2

50 most cited of 59 All 59 (JSON)

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  5. 2024LLM as a Mastermind: A Survey of Strategic Reasoning with Large Language Models
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