Paper Detail

Continual Knowledge Updating in LLM Systems: Learning Through Multi-Timescale Memory Dynamics

Andreas Pattichis, Constantine Dovrolis

arxiv Score 20.5

Published 2026-05-06 · First seen 2026-05-09

Research Track A · General AI

Abstract

LLMs are trained once, then deployed into a world that never stops changing. External memory compensates for this, but most systems manage it explicitly rather than letting it adapt on its own. Biological memory works differently: coupled multi-timescale dynamics make new associations immediately usable, strengthen what repetition confirms, and let the rest fade. We argue that external memory should follow a similar principle. In Memini, this view takes the form of an associative memory that organizes knowledge as a directed graph. Each edge carries two coupled internal variables, one fast and one slow, following the Benna-Fusi model of synaptic consolidation. From this coupling, episodic sensitivity, gradual consolidation, and selective forgetting emerge as facets of a single mechanism, reframing external memory as a learning substrate that reorganizes through its own dynamics.

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BibTeX

@article{pattichis2026continual,
  title = {Continual Knowledge Updating in LLM Systems: Learning Through Multi-Timescale Memory Dynamics},
  author = {Andreas Pattichis and Constantine Dovrolis},
  year = {2026},
  abstract = {LLMs are trained once, then deployed into a world that never stops changing. External memory compensates for this, but most systems manage it explicitly rather than letting it adapt on its own. Biological memory works differently: coupled multi-timescale dynamics make new associations immediately usable, strengthen what repetition confirms, and let the rest fade. We argue that external memory should follow a similar principle. In Memini, this view takes the form of an associative memory that org},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.05097},
  keywords = {cs.LG, cs.AI, cs.CL},
  eprint = {2605.05097},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
}

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