mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

A Review of the Applications of Deep Learning-Based Emergent Communication

arXiv 2407.03302 ↗First posted 3 Jul 2024cs.CLcited by 17

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Abstract (arXiv)

Emergent communication, or emergent language, is the field of research which studies how human language-like communication systems emerge de novo in deep multi-agent reinforcement learning environments. The possibilities of replicating the emergence of a complex behavior like language have strong intuitive appeal, yet it is necessary to complement this with clear notions of how such research can be applicable to other fields of science, technology, and engineering. This paper comprehensively reviews the applications of emergent communication research across machine learning, natural language processing, linguistics, and cognitive science. Each application is illustrated with a description of its scope, an explication of emergent communication's unique role in addressing it, a summary of the extant literature working towards the application, and brief recommendations for near-term research directions.

Key facts. Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 143 of its 216 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Jul 2024.

Builds on

143 of 216 references.

References · 143

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38 more
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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 2; 2025: 9; 2026: 6.

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  1. 2026The Five Ws of Multi-Agent Communication: Who Talks to Whom, When, What, and Why -- A Survey from MARL to Emergent Language and LLMscited by 10
  2. 2025Simulating the Emergence of Differential Case Marking with Communicating Neural-Network Agentscited by 5
  3. 2025Unsupervised Translation of Emergent Communicationcited by 3
  4. 2024ELCC: the Emergent Language Corpus Collectioncited by 2
  5. 2026Investigating the Development of Task-Oriented Communication in Vision-Language Modelscited by 2
  6. 2024SimSiam Naming Game: A Unified Approach for Emergent Communication and Representation Learningcited by 1
  7. 2025Metropolis-Hastings Captioning Game: Knowledge Fusion of Vision Language Models via Decentralized Bayesian Inferencecited by 1
  8. 2025From Grunts to Lexicons: Emergent Language from Cooperative Foragingcited by 1
  9. 2025Searching for the Most Human-like Emergent Languagecited by 1
  10. 2026SANEmerg: An Emergent Communication Framework for Semantic-aware Agentic AI Networkingcited by 1
  11. 2025Cognitively-Inspired Emergent Communication via Knowledge Graphs for Assisting the Visually Impairedcited by 0
  12. 2025Why Are Parsing Actions for Understanding Message Hierarchies Not Random?cited by 0
5 more
  1. 2025Discovering Properties of Inflectional Morphology in Neural Emergent Communicationcited by 0
  2. 2025Morpheme Induction for Emergent Languagecited by 0
  3. 2026The emergence of numerical representations in communicating artificial agentscited by 0
  4. 2026Drawing with Strangers: Population Scaling Drives Zero-Shot Mutual Intelligibility in Emergent Sketchingcited by 0
  5. 2026A Dynamic-Semantics Framework for Grounding Human Referring Expressions in Visual Perceptual Datacited by 0