AI's Next Breakthrough Lies in Small Agent Collaboration, Says Academician Otthein Herzog

German and Chinese academy member Otthein Herzog stated in an interview that the next major breakthrough in artificial intelligence will come from the collaboration of multiple small, specialized agents rather than a single massive monolithic system. Herzog, who recently received China's International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, emphasized that this multi-agent approach mimics human cooperation and offers superior adaptability. This perspective aligns with the growing industry shift toward compound AI systems and multi-agent architectures, which address the high costs and rigidity of training ever-larger single models. By focusing on collaborative specialized agents, developers can build more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective AI solutions for complex real-world tasks. Herzog highlighted that a multi-agent architecture allows developers to easily add or remove individual agents as needed, making the system far more practical than monolithic alternatives. He also noted that while large language models have lowered the barrier to knowledge acquisition, fully realizing the potential of collaborative agents still requires extensive research and practical implementation.