ToolChain*: Efficient Action Space Navigation in Large Language Models
  with A* Search
Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated powerful decision-making and
planning capabilities in solving complicated real-world problems. LLM-based
autonomous agents can interact with diverse tools (e.g., functional APIs) and
generate solution plans that execute a series of API function calls in a
step-by-step manner. The multitude of candidate API function calls
significantly expands the action space, amplifying the critical need for
efficient action space navigation. However, existing methods either struggle
with unidirectional exploration in expansive action spaces, trapped into a
locally optimal solution, or suffer from exhaustively traversing all potential
actions, causing inefficient navigation. To address these issues, we propose
ToolChain*, an efficient tree search-based planning algorithm for LLM-based
agents. It formulates the entire action space as a decision tree, where each
node represents a possible API function call involved in a solution plan. By
incorporating the A* search algorithm with task-specific cost function design,
it efficiently prunes high-cost branches that may involve incorrect actions,
identifying the most low-cost valid path as the solution. Extensive experiments
on multiple tool-use and reasoning tasks demonstrate that ToolChain*
efficiently balances exploration and exploitation within an expansive action
space. It outperforms state-of-the-art baselines on planning and reasoning
tasks by 3.1% and 3.5% on average while requiring 7.35x and 2.31x less time,
respectively.
6535eaafd434308ba47cdaae
Yuchen Zhuang
extracted_confirmed
2023-10-23T18:29:44.269Z
6471bddd609ae9f56368f132
https://cdn-avatars.huggingface.co/v1/production/uploads/6471bddd609ae9f56368f132/G91Q4iCGN2dy3oMaz-LrO.jpeg
Yuchen Zhuang
user
yczhuang
6535eaafd434308ba47cdaaf
Xiang Chen
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab0
Tong Yu
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab1
Saayan Mitra
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab2
Victor Bursztyn
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab3
Ryan A. Rossi
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab4
Somdeb Sarkhel
6535eaafd434308ba47cdab5
Chao Zhang
ToolChain*: Efficient Action Space Navigation in Large Language Models
  with A* Search
Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated powerful decision-making and
planning capabilities in solving complicated real-world problems. LLM-based
autonomous agents can interact with diverse tools (e.g., functional APIs) and
generate solution plans that execute a series of API function calls in a
step-by-step manner. The multitude of candidate API function calls
significantly expands the action space, amplifying the critical need for
efficient action space navigation. However, existing methods either struggle
with unidirectional exploration in expansive action spaces, trapped into a
locally optimal solution, or suffer from exhaustively traversing all potential
actions, causing inefficient navigation. To address these issues, we propose
ToolChain*, an efficient tree search-based planning algorithm for LLM-based
agents. It formulates the entire action space as a decision tree, where each
node represents a possible API function call involved in a solution plan. By
incorporating the A* search algorithm with task-specific cost function design,
it efficiently prunes high-cost branches that may involve incorrect actions,
identifying the most low-cost valid path as the solution. Extensive experiments
on multiple tool-use and reasoning tasks demonstrate that ToolChain*
efficiently balances exploration and exploitation within an expansive action
space. It outperforms state-of-the-art baselines on planning and reasoning
tasks by 3.1% and 3.5% on average while requiring 7.35x and 2.31x less time,
respectively.
ToolChain*, an A* search-based planning algorithm, enhances the efficiency of LLM-based autonomous agents in navigating expansive action spaces by pruning incorrect API function calls.
LLMs autonomous agents API function calls action space decision tree A* search algorithm cost function task-specific