Weakness Localization Is Not Enough: State-Aware Recursive Knowledge Improvement for Large Language Models

Runze Jiang, Yan Wang, Boran Jin, Bingyu Zhu, Longtao Huang

Knowledge improvement in large language models is shifting from predefined knowledge incorporation pipelines toward evaluation-guided updating. Existing methods use evaluation to localize model-specific knowledge weaknesses and guide targeted post-training. However, identifying what to improve does not necessarily provide sufficient information for deciding how to improve it. The same localized weakness can be compatible with distinct operational knowledge states: the relevant knowledge may be unavailable, available but difficult to access reliably, or accessible but ineffective for downstream use. We call this ambiguity knowledge-state aliasing. When compatible states favor different interventions, greater diagnostic resolution alone is insufficient for intervention selection. Moreover, model updates can change the underlying knowledge state before the observed weakness disappears, such that an intervention appropriate in one round may no longer address the bottleneck in the next. To address these challenges, we propose Recursive Knowledge Improvement (RKI), which formulates knowledge improvement as a sequential, state-aware intervention process. RKI organizes knowledge into…