mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Exploring Large Language Model based Intelligent Agents: Definitions, Methods, and Prospects

arXiv 2401.03428 ↗First posted 7 Jan 2024cs.AI cs.MAcited by 130

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

Intelligent agents stand out as a potential path toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). Thus, researchers have dedicated significant effort to diverse implementations for them. Benefiting from recent progress in large language models (LLMs), LLM-based agents that use universal natural language as an interface exhibit robust generalization capabilities across various applications -- from serving as autonomous general-purpose task assistants to applications in coding, social, and economic domains, LLM-based agents offer extensive exploration opportunities. This paper surveys current research to provide an in-depth overview of LLM-based intelligent agents within single-agent and multi-agent systems. It covers their definitions, research frameworks, and foundational components such as their composition, cognitive and planning methods, tool utilization, and responses to environmental feedback. We also delve into the mechanisms of deploying LLM-based agents in multi-agent systems, including multi-role collaboration, message passing, and strategies to alleviate communication issues between agents. The discussions also shed light on popular datasets and application scenarios. We conclude by envisioning prospects for LLM-based agents, considering the evolving landscape of AI and natural language processing.

Key facts. Cited by 130 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 84 of its 141 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2024.

Builds on

84 of 141 references.

Closest ancestors · 13

Same direction, newest first

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  2. 2023How FaR Are Large Language Models From Agents with Theory-of-Mind?4 Oct
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  4. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey14 Sep
  5. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents22 Aug
  6. 2023AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviors21 Aug
  7. 2023ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learners20 Aug
  8. 2023ChatEval: Towards Better LLM-based Evaluators through Multi-Agent Debate14 Aug
  9. 2023Gentopia: A Collaborative Platform for Tool-Augmented LLMs8 Aug
  10. 2023AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents7 Aug
  11. 2023Building Cooperative Embodied Agents Modularly with Large Language Models5 Jul
  12. 2023SwiftSage: A Generative Agent with Fast and Slow Thinking for Complex Interactive Tasks27 May
1 more
  1. 2023CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Society31 Mar

Other references · 71

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
  2. 2020Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Taskscited by 9,160
  3. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  4. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
  5. 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 7,916
  6. 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasonerscited by 4,323
  7. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
  8. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,064
  9. 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,598
  10. 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,509
  11. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
  12. 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,317
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  1. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
  2. 2023Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4cited by 2,579
  3. 2023A Survey of Large Language Modelscited by 2,537
  4. 2022Emergent Abilities of Large Language Modelscited by 2,483
  5. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,302
  6. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
  7. 2022Beyond the Imitation Game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language modelscited by 1,970
  8. 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agentscited by 1,908
  9. 2023ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIscited by 1,880
  10. 2017Multi-Agent Actor-Critic for Mixed Cooperative-Competitive Environmentscited by 1,519
  11. 2022WebShop: Towards Scalable Real-World Web Interaction with Grounded Language Agentscited by 1,197
  12. 2023HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Facecited by 1,173
  13. 2020ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learningcited by 1,143
  14. 2023GAIA: a benchmark for General AI Assistantscited by 1,084
  15. 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,057
  16. 2023Encouraging Divergent Thinking in Large Language Models through Multi-Agent Debatecited by 995
  17. 2023Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Modelscited by 873
  18. 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Modelcited by 846
  19. 2023DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelinescited by 803
  20. 2022Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samplescited by 737
  21. 2020Deep Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Driving: A Surveycited by 698
  22. 2022ProgPrompt: Generating Situated Robot Task Plans using Large Language Modelscited by 598
  23. 2023Are Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models a Mirage?cited by 515
  24. 2023LeanDojo: Theorem Proving with Retrieval-Augmented Language Modelscited by 414
  25. 2023Chameleon: Plug-and-Play Compositional Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 352
  26. 2023LayoutGPT: Compositional Visual Planning and Generation with Large Language Modelscited by 337
  27. 2023Chain-of-Verification Reduces Hallucination in Large Language Modelscited by 317
  28. 2023Tool Learning with Foundation Modelscited by 302
  29. 2022Social Simulacra: Creating Populated Prototypes for Social Computing Systemscited by 300
  30. 2023Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memorycited by 288
  31. 2023Self-collaboration Code Generation via ChatGPTcited by 255
  32. 2023Exploring Large Language Models for Communication Games: An Empirical Study on Werewolfcited by 238
  33. 2023S3: Social-network Simulation System with Large Language Model-Empowered Agentscited by 228
  34. 2013The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processescited by 225
  35. 2023DiLu: A Knowledge-Driven Approach to Autonomous Driving with Large Language Modelscited by 204
  36. 2023TaskMatrix.AI: Completing Tasks by Connecting Foundation Models with Millions of APIscited by 184
  37. 2023Solving Challenging Math Word Problems Using GPT-4 Code Interpreter with Code-based Self-Verificationcited by 166
  38. 2022MRKL Systems: A modular, neuro-symbolic architecture that combines large language models, external knowledge sources and discrete reasoningcited by 153

50 most cited of 71 All 71 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 42; 2025: 66; 2026: 22.

130 papers.

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  1. 2024A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agentscited by 622
  2. 2025Why Do Multi-Agent LLM Systems Fail?cited by 559
  3. 2024Magentic-One: A Generalist Multi-Agent System for Solving Complex Taskscited by 221
  4. 2024Two Tales of Persona in LLMs: A Survey of Role-Playing and Personalizationcited by 203
  5. 2025Large Language Model Agent: A Survey on Methodology, Applications and Challengescited by 194
  6. 2024Large Language Model-Based Agents for Software Engineering: A Surveycited by 173
  7. 2024Large Language Model-Brained GUI Agents: A Surveycited by 160
  8. 2024LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering: Literature Review, Vision and the Road Aheadcited by 155
  9. 2024Cut the Crap: An Economical Communication Pipeline for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systemscited by 129
  10. 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systemscited by 125
  11. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 120
  12. 2024Survey on Large Language Model-Enhanced Reinforcement Learning: Concept, Taxonomy, and Methodscited by 114
38 more
  1. 2024G-Designer: Architecting Multi-agent Communication Topologies via Graph Neural Networkscited by 110
  2. 2024GUI Agents: A Surveycited by 101
  3. 2024AriGraph: Learning Knowledge Graph World Models with Episodic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 100
  4. 2025Towards Scientific Intelligence: A Survey of LLM-based Scientific Agentscited by 96
  5. 2025A Survey of LLM-based Agents in Medicine: How far are we from Baymax?cited by 84
  6. 2025Lifelong Learning of Large Language Model based Agents: A Roadmapcited by 78
  7. 2025Remember Me, Refine Me: A Dynamic Procedural Memory Framework for Experience-Driven Agent Evolutioncited by 65
  8. 2024HoneyComb: A Flexible LLM-Based Agent System for Materials Sciencecited by 56
  9. 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directionscited by 49
  10. 2024Position: What Can Large Language Models Tell Us about Time Series Analysiscited by 47
  11. 2025General Agentic Memory Via Deep Researchcited by 42
  12. 2025Magentic-UI: Towards Human-in-the-loop Agentic Systemscited by 41
  13. 2025LEGOMem: Modular Procedural Memory for Multi-agent LLM Systems for Workflow Automationcited by 39
  14. 2025OS Agents: A Survey on MLLM-based Agents for General Computing Devices Usecited by 35
  15. 2025Generative to Agentic AI: Survey, Conceptualization, and Challengescited by 32
  16. 2025From Language to Action: A Review of Large Language Models as Autonomous Agents and Tool Userscited by 32
  17. 2025HM-RAG: Hierarchical Multi-Agent Multimodal Retrieval Augmented Generationcited by 31
  18. 2025Internet of Agents: Fundamentals, Applications, and Challengescited by 31
  19. 2024Exploring Autonomous Agents through the Lens of Large Language Models: A Reviewcited by 30
  20. 2024OmniJARVIS: Unified Vision-Language-Action Tokenization Enables Open-World Instruction Following Agentscited by 30
  21. 2025Do Large Language Models Solve the Problems of Agent-Based Modeling? A Critical Review of Generative Social Simulationscited by 28
  22. 2025A Survey on Autonomy-Induced Security Risks in Large Model-Based Agentscited by 28
  23. 2025JARVIS-VLA: Post-Training Large-Scale Vision Language Models to Play Visual Games with Keyboards and Mousecited by 27
  24. 2024Large Model Based Agents: State-of-the-Art, Cooperation Paradigms, Security and Privacy, and Future Trendscited by 26
  25. 2025Phi-Ground Tech Report: Advancing Perception in GUI Groundingcited by 24
  26. 2025SAFEFLOW: A Principled Protocol for Trustworthy and Transactional Autonomous Agent Systemscited by 23
  27. 2025Game-TARS: Pretrained Foundation Models for Scalable Generalist Multimodal Game Agentscited by 23
  28. 2024When LLMs Go Online: The Emerging Threat of Web-Enabled LLMscited by 22
  29. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-based Agents for Statistics and Data Sciencecited by 22
  30. 2024CodePori: Large-Scale System for Autonomous Software Development Using Multi-Agent Technologycited by 21
  31. 2024Advancing Social Intelligence in AI Agents: Technical Challenges and Open Questionscited by 21
  32. 2024ROCKET-1: Mastering Open-World Interaction with Visual-Temporal Context Promptingcited by 20
  33. 2025AgentBound: Securing Execution Boundaries of AI Agentscited by 20
  34. 2024Autonomous Industrial Control using an Agentic Framework with Large Language Modelscited by 19
  35. 2024Large Language Models as Software Components: A Taxonomy for LLM-Integrated Applicationscited by 17
  36. 2025Talk Structurally, Act Hierarchically: A Collaborative Framework for LLM Multi-Agent Systemscited by 17
  37. 2024AutoPatent: A Multi-Agent Framework for Automatic Patent Generationcited by 16
  38. 2024Towards Rationality in Language and Multimodal Agents: A Surveycited by 15

50 most cited of 130 All 130 (JSON)

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