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Rethinking Memory in AI: Taxonomy, Operations, Topics, and Future Directions (arxiv.org)
5 points by wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB on May 13, 2025 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: It sorts memory into knowledge in the model's weights versus data saved outside, then names six actions: saving, updating, indexing, forgetting, retrieving, and compressing. Earlier reviews focus on uses like personalized chat; this map shows how the actions interact and flags four open areas.

Abstract · Rethinking Memory in LLM based Agents: Representations, Operations, and Emerging Topics

Memory is fundamental to large language model (LLM)-based agents, but existing surveys emphasize application-level use (e.g., personalized dialogue), while overlooking the atomic operations governing memory dynamics. This work categorizes memory into parametric (implicit in model weights) and contextual (explicit external data, structured/unstructured) forms, and defines six core operations: Consolidation, Updating, Indexing, Forgetting, Retrieval, and Condensation. Mapping these dimensions reveals four key research topics: long-term, long-context, parametric modification, and multi-source memory. The taxonomy provides a structured view of memory-related research, benchmarks, and tools, clarifying functional interactions in LLM-based agents and guiding future advancements. The datasets, papers, and tools are publicly available at https://github.com/Elvin-Yiming-Du/Survey_Memory_in_AI.

Yiming Du, Wenyu Huang, Danna Zheng, Zhaowei Wang, Sebastien Montella, Mirella Lapata, Kam-Fai Wong, Jeff Z. Pan
arXiv:2505.00675 · cs.CL · submitted May 1, 2025 · updated Dec 24, 2025
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Also discussed: Jun 2025 (2 points, 1 comment)