EMBERS: Empirically Motivated Robustness Testing of Deep Research Systems via Defect-Guided Fuzzing

arXiv:2611.03723v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Deep Research (DR) systems extend large language models into autonomous agents that decompose complex information needs, iteratively search the web, and synthesize evidence to answer challenging questions. However, their multi-stage execution may introduce robustness risks, as variations in user questions or intermediate search inputs may propagate across research stages and lead to incorrect answers. Existing evaluations focus on task-solving capabilities or robustness against external evidence disturbances, leaving intrinsic weaknesses in DR execution insufficiently explored.