Multi-Agent Communication: A framework, diagnostic and mechanistic perspective

Multi-agent LLM systems are increasingly used for collaborative reasoning, debate, and consensus, yet their communication dynamics remain poorly understood. This talk presents a framework for studying multi-agent communication through diagnostic and mechanistic perspectives. I will discuss CONSENSAGENT, which improves consensus by mitigating sycophancy, alongside our diagnostic work on communication patterns and failure modes in real-world multi-agent debates. I will then present ongoing work that moves toward a mechanistic understanding of how these interaction patterns arise internally, with the broader goal of making multi-agent systems more interpretable, reliable, and controllable. Priya Pitre is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech (VT), co-advised by Dr. Xuan Wang and Dr. Naren Ramakrishnan. Priya's primary research lies in reliable multi-agent foundation model systems for decision-making in complex real-world environments.