Extended Coherence Work Sessions

Problem

Early AI agents and models often suffered from a short "coherence window," meaning they could only maintain focus and context for a few minutes before their performance degraded significantly (e.g., losing track of instructions, generating irrelevant output). This limited their utility for complex, multi-stage tasks that require sustained effort over hours.

Solution

Utilize AI models and agent architectures that are specifically designed or have demonstrably improved capabilities to maintain coherence over extended periods (e.g., several hours). This involves: - Leveraging newer foundation models with larger context windows and better long-term memory. - Implementing agentic architectures that can manage state and context effectively over time. - Prioritizing this capability allows agents to undertake substantial projects, engage in prolonged problem-solving, and complete tasks that were previously infeasible due to coherence limitations.

The goal is to enable agents to work on tasks for as long as a human counterpart might, without a degradation in the quality or relevance of their work.

Example (coherence over time)

gantt title Agent Coherence Capabilities Over Time dateFormat X axisFormat %s section Early Models Short coherence window (minutes) :done, early, 0, 300 section Current Models Extended coherence (hours) :active, current, 300, 10800 section Future Trend All-day coherence :future, 10800, 86400

References

Highlighted in "How AI Agents Are Reshaping Creation": "Every seven months, we're actually doubling the number of minutes that the AI can work and stay coherent... The latest models can maintain coherence for hours." This capability is described as a "qualitative shift."

Source