Microsoft's research team recently released a new multi-agent system called Magnetic-One, an open source universal agent system designed to increase individual and enterprise productivity through multiple AI assistants working together. The system is coordinated by a commander agent to four different types of auxiliary agents: Websurfer, FileSurfer, Coder and ComputerTerminal, which are responsible for web browsing, file operation, code writing and terminal control respectively. Magnetic-One supports multiple model combinations and provides an open source evaluation tool called AutoGenBench to facilitate developers to test and optimize system performance. Its flexibility and scalability make it an important direction for the development of the future agent framework.
Recently, Microsoft research team released a new multi-agent system called Magnetic-One. The framework allows an AI model to drive multiple assistant agents to collaborate on complex multi-step tasks, aiming to improve individual and enterprise productivity.
Microsoft calls Magnetic-One a universal agent system that delivers a long-standing vision of increasing productivity and changing lifestyles.
Magnetic-One is an open source project that allows researchers and developers to develop for commercial purposes under a custom Microsoft license. At the same time, Microsoft also released an open source agent evaluation tool called AutoGenBench, aiming to test the effectiveness of the agent system. This tool is based on the previously released Autogen framework and supports communication and cooperation between multiple agents.
At the heart of Magnetic-One is an Orchestrator that manages and coordinates four different auxiliary agents. In addition to the commander, the system also includes the following four types of agents:
1. **Websurfer agent**: Can control Chromium-based browsers, search, click and input web pages, and even summarize web page content.
2. **FileSurfer agent**: Used to read local files, list directories and browse folders.
3. **Coder agent**: Responsible for writing code, analyzing information from other agents and creating new projects.
4. **ComputerTerminal agent**: Provides a console for the Coder agent's program to be executed.
The commander agent not only formulates a task execution plan, but also tracks the progress of each agent in real time and reassigns it when an error occurs. If the agent encounters obstacles on a task, the commander can adjust the plan to ensure the smooth completion of the task.
Microsoft used OpenAI's GPT-4o when developing Magnetic-One, though, the system is independent of large language models, and researchers recommend using a powerful inference model as a commander agent. Magnetic-One supports multiple model combinations, and developers can flexibly choose according to their needs.
As enterprises grow their interest in multi-agent deployment, Microsoft's Magnetic-One system may become an important part of driving the evolution of the agular framework. Other companies such as OpenAI and CrewAI are also launching similar agent management frameworks, and enterprises are still constantly exploring when choosing the best multi-agent solution.
Official introduction: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/articles/magentic-one-a-generalist-multi-agent-system-for-solving-complex-tasks/
Key points:
**Magnetic-One System**: Microsoft launched a multi-agent framework designed to increase productivity and automate daily tasks.
** Various agent roles**: including commander, web browsing, file browsing, code writing and other agents work together.
** Open Source Sharing**:Magnetic-One provides developers with an open source framework to promote flexible application and evaluation of agents.
The open source features and powerful functions of Magnetic-One make it have significant advantages in the field of multi-agent systems, and future developments are worth looking forward to. Its flexible architecture and scalability will provide developers with more possibilities to promote the application of artificial intelligence technology in various fields.