Recursive Language Models

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Overview

Recursive Language Models study how language models can solve problems through repeated computation, either by invoking themselves on subtasks or by reusing layers to refine latent states. Approaches include code- and context-based recursive agents, looped transformers, adaptive-depth computation, and methods for stabilizing, training, or compressing recurrent models. They are evaluated on long-context retrieval, mathematical and algorithmic reasoning, code generation, and tool-use tasks. A central tension is that added depth can improve difficult reasoning but also increase latency, memory use, instability, or overthinking, while its effects on knowledge retention and safety remain important concerns.

Latest papers

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65 papers29 papers in the last four weeks, up 222% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. Cross-Loop Query Handoff: How Later Loops Redirect Two-Hop Retrieval in the Ouro Looped Language Models

    Oct 25, 2026Ziyu Mu, Zehua WangMulti-Hop RetrievalMulti-Hop QA

    Faculty of Science The University of British Columbia · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of British Columbia

  2. ScaleRLT: Exact Log-Probabilities and Fast Deferred Rollouts for Reinforcement Learning on Looped Transformers

    Oct 25, 2026Dezhen Lu, Zixiang Ni, Runguo LiRL for Language ModelsEfficient Language Model Inference

    University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. · Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.

  3. One Model, Two Paths: Balancing Single-Pass and Looped Performance in Language Models

    Oct 24, 2026Jiarun Shen, Lei Zhao, Xiao LiLLM InferenceFine-Tuning Language Models

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen · Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  4. Do Halting Heads Really Save Compute in Looped Language Models?

    Oct 23, 2026Tsung-Han Wu, Minsuk Heo, Kenny TanLLM Inference AccelerationLayer Skipping in Language Model Decoding

    Apple

  5. Agreement rather than normalisation keeps depth reusable in looped language models

    Oct 22, 2026Ivan Viakhirev, Kirill Borodin, Maxim Abramov +1Recurrent Language ModelsRecursive Language Models

    lab260, Yerevan, Armenia · BitmanagerAI, Dubai, UAE · St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

  6. BeNice! Closing Looping's Inference-Memory Gap via KV-Sharing

    Oct 22, 2026Hayden Prairie, Jacob M. Ryan, Taylor Berg-Kirkpatrick +1KV-Cache ReuseMemory-Efficient Inference

    University of California, San Diego · Together AI

  7. recAMPLIFY: Large-Scale Pretraining of Recursive Protein Language Models

    Oct 19, 2026Saurav Jha, Qianli Liao, Robert Vernon +2Protein Language ModelsRecursive Language Models

    Mila – Quebec AI Institute · Polytechnique Montréal · Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines +4

  8. Long-form Video-to-Text Summarization using Recursive Language Models

    Oct 19, 2026Alessia Intini, Lorenzo Vaiani, Enrico Chen +1Video SummarizationVideo-Language Models

    Politecnico di Torino

  9. Dual-Slot: From Serial Loops to Parallel Slots in Language Models

    Oct 18, 2026Yiqin Hao, Zitong Wang, Boyi Zeng +7Autoregressive Language ModelingRecurrent Language Models

    LUMIA Lab, School of Artificial Intelligence, Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Sun Yat-sen University · Shanghai AI Laboratory

  10. Towards Looped Models Done Right, Part I: Topology, Input Injection, Recurrent-State Design

    Oct 16, 2026Benhao Huang, Chufan Shi, Junlin Chen +4Recurrent TransformersRecursive Language Models

    Institute of Foundation Models · CMU · USC

  11. LEV: Thinking Fast and Deep with Looped Decision Models

    Oct 14, 2026Dingjie Song, Zhiling Yan, Yuxuan Zhang +1Efficient Language Model InferenceAdaptive Computation

    Lehigh University · University of British Columbia · Vector Institute

  12. Monitoring latent reasoning in looped language models

    Oct 13, 2026Pawel Olszowiec, Paulina Tomaszewska, Maciej Żelaszczyk +2Implicit Reasoning in Language ModelsRecursive Language Models

    Samsung AI Center, Warsaw, Poland · IFTR, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland · University of Warsaw, Poland

  13. LoopQuant: Accurate and Efficient Post-Training Quantization for Looped Transformers

    Oct 12, 2026Zhixiong Zhao, Zukang Xu, Xing Hu +3Post-Training QuantizationLLM Quantization

    School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University · Houmo AI

  14. Safe at One Loop, Risky at Another: Aligning Safety Across Recurrent Depths in Looped Language Models

    Oct 7, 2026Yi Wang, Xiuyuan Qi, Dongqi Han +2LLM Safety AlignmentLanguage Model Safety Evaluation

    ShanghaiTech University · Microsoft Research Asia

  15. Recurrent Self-Improvement: Dynamic Cross-Loop On-Policy Distillation for Looped Language Models

    Oct 7, 2026Yi Wang, Rui Qian, Yu Li +2Language Model Self-ImprovementOn-Policy Distillation

    ShanghaiTech University · Fudan University · Southeast University +1

  16. Enabling Dynamic Computation in Looped LMs

    Oct 6, 2026Aayush Mishra, Arnau Padrés Masdemont, Victor Conchello Vendrell +3LLM Inference AccelerationAdaptive Computation

    Qualcomm AI Research · Johns Hopkins University

  17. Hybrid Latent Attention for Looped Language Models

    Oct 6, 2026Yuhan Chen, Siyuan Zhang, Nan Wang +2Long-Context Language Model InferenceLLM Inference Acceleration

    Virginia Tech · Independent Researcher

  18. SanSi: A Looped Typed Decision Model for System 1.5 Thinking

    Oct 6, 2026Shuyu Gan, Young-Jun Lee, Dongyeop KangEfficient Language Model ReasoningImplicit Reasoning in Language Models

    University of Minnesota

  19. Towards Looped Models Done Right, Part II: Rethinking at Fixed Points

    Oct 5, 2026Benhao Huang, Chufan Shi, Junlin Chen +4Efficient Language Model TrainingRecurrent Transformers

    Institute of Foundation Models · CMU · USC

  20. Wikidata Search Traces: A Dataset for Training Knowledge Graph Search Agents

    Oct 5, 2026Mohamed Chenene, Carlos Rosas-Hinostroza, Anastasia Stasenko +2Multi-Hop QAKnowledge Graph Question Answering

    PleIAs · Lattice, ENS-PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Nouvelle · Université Paris Dauphine-PSL +4

  21. Loopy: Low-Bit Quantization Framework for Looped Language Models

    Oct 4, 2026Zeyu LI, Yipu ZHANG, Jintao Chen +2LLM QuantizationPost-Training Quantization

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology · Duke Kunshan University

  22. Self-Evaluating Recursive Agents

    Oct 4, 2026TianYi Lyu, Xiaozhe Li, Yang Li +7LLM Agent TrainingRecursive Language Models

    Tongji University · Independent · Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory +3

  23. On the Chain-of-Thought Monitorability of Looped Language Models

    Oct 2, 2026Han Wang, Ishwar B Balappanawar, Huan ZhangCoT MonitoringRecursive Language Models

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  24. Closing the Loop: Practical Training Recipes for Looped Language Models

    Sep 30, 2026Andrei Marchenko, Viacheslav Bezrukov, Oleg Kashurin +5Efficient Language Model TrainingLLM Training

    RND NLP, DAIMLD, Russian Federation

  25. Random Recursive Models

    Sep 30, 2026Jama Hussein Mohamud, Mirco RavanelliEfficient Neural Network InferenceLLM Reasoning

    Mila – Quebec AI Institute · Université de Montréal · Concordia University

  26. What Limits Recursive Reasoning Models: Optimization, Architecture and Test-Time Scaling

    Sep 30, 2026Yuliana Shakhvalieva, Dmitrii Kharchev, Viacheslav Bezrukov +4Recursive Reasoning ModelsNeural Algorithmic Reasoning

    RND NLP, DAIMLD, Russian Federation

  27. What Makes Recurrence Effective in Looped Language Models?

    Sep 29, 2026Xinlin Zhuang, Siyuan Wang, Imran Razzak +1Recursive Language ModelsEfficient Language Model Inference

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong · MBZUAI

  28. Principled Thoughts for Latent Recursive LLM Systems

    Sep 28, 2026Fahd Seddik, Fatemeh FardContinuous Latent ReasoningMulti-Agent LLMs

    FARD Lab, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada

  29. Loop Dropout: Regularizing Shared Updates in Looped Language Models

    Sep 28, 2026Zirui Zhu, Hailun Xu, Xuanlei Zhao +5Low-Rank AdaptationParameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning

  30. Reasoning on the Simplex: Geometric Fixed-Point Models

    Sep 27, 2026Talgat Daulbaev, Ilya Glazkov, Maxim Rakhuba +1Mathematical ReasoningRecursive Language Models

    Applied AI Institute · LigandPro · HSE University +1