Semantic Bandits: In-Context Exploration-Exploitation is Biased by Semantic Priors

Excerpt

arXiv:2608.16707v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as decision-making agents in settings that require sophisticated environmental exploration. However, existing work has raised questions about how LLMs actually balance exploration and exploitation. Unlike classical agents, LLM agents engage with tasks through natural language, exposing them to semantic information with no formal counterpart in the task structure. We introduce the semantic ban