Cited by 6Topic ModelingSpeech and dialogue systemsNatural Language Processing Techniques

Beyond Prompts: Dynamic Conversational Benchmarking of Large Language Models

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Castillo-Bolado, David, Davidson, Joseph, Gray, Finlay, Rosa, Marek·2024·Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 37

Abstract

We introduce a dynamic benchmarking system for conversational agents that evaluates their performance through a single, simulated, and lengthy user$\leftrightarrow$agent interaction. The interaction is a conversation between the user and agent, where multiple tasks are introduced and then undertaken concurrently. We context switch regularly to interleave the tasks, which constructs a realistic testing scenario in which we assess the Long-Term Memory, Continual Learning, and Information Integration capabilities of the agents. Results from both proprietary and open-source Large-Language Models show that LLMs in general perform well on single-task interactions, but they struggle on the same tasks when they are interleaved. Notably, short-context LLMs supplemented with an LTM system perform as well as or better than those with larger contexts. Our benchmark suggests that there are other challenges for LLMs responding to more natural interactions that contemporary benchmarks have heretofore not been able to capture.

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  • LTMBenchmark is a specialized benchmark focusing on long-term memory evaluation; it assesses LLM agents' memory retention and continual learning through dynamic conversational tests with interleaved dialogues and controlled distractions, using metrics including task accuracy, memory-span-weighted LTM Score, and efficiency measures.

    “LTMBenchmark (Castillo-Bolado et al., 2024) is a specialized benchmark focusing on long-term memory (LTM) evaluation. It assesses LLM agents' memory retention and continual learning through dynamic conversational tests, using interleaved dialogues with controlled distractions to simulate real-world recall challenges. Key metrics include task accuracy, memory-span-weighted LTM Score, and efficiency”

    From A Survey of Self-Evolving Agents: What, When, How, and Where to Evolve on the Path to Artificial Super Intelligence (2025) · cites this paper as Castillo-Bolado et al., 2024

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  • Economic and computational constraints limit evaluation robustness, with some benchmarks conducting minimal repetitions that may not capture stochastic variation.

    “Economic and computational constraints limit evaluation robustness, with some benchmarks conducting minimal repetitions that may not capture stochastic variation (Castillo-Bolado et al., 2024).”
  • No benchmark combines extended memory assessment with rigorous safety auditing, leaving open whether agents can maintain personalization across thousands of interactions while guaranteeing zero sensitive information leakage.

    “Long-horizon retention with privacy constraints : No benchmark combines extended memory assessment (as in LTMBenchmark (Castillo-Bolado et al., 2024)) with rigorous safety auditing (as in AgentSafetyBench (Zhang et al., 2024i)), leaving open whether agents can maintain personalization across thousands of interactions while guaranteeing zero sensitive information leakage.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 27

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Castillo-Bolado, D., Davidson, J., Gray, F., & Rosa, M.
Venue
Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 37
Published
2024
Pages
42528-42565
ISSN
1049-5258 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4415798012
Cited by
3
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2
FWCI
0.87
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
public-domain
Locations
  • neural information processing systems (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Topic Modeling
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Speech and dialogue systems
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Natural Language Processing Techniques
Keywords
large language models, dynamic benchmarking, prompt-based evaluation

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