arc-task-gen

# ARC-AGI-1 Task Generator

## Distribution-Matched Tasks for Model Evaluation

This repository generates fresh ARC-AGI-1-style tasks that resemble the public dataset. These tasks can be used to evaluate frontier models such as BDH-CQ on problems they are unlikely to have encountered before.

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## Overview

BDH-CQ is a reasoning model that combines in-context learning through evolving recurrent memory with iterative reasoning in a structured, continuous latent space.

It builds on Dragon Hatchling (BDH), a post-Transformer recurrent architecture in which neuron-like units communicate through low-rank interactions and maintain context in an evolving associative state. BDH-CQ extends this architecture: at inference time, its recurrent memory is continuously updated, and queries are solved through iterative computation in latent space rather than by generating an intermediate, text-based chain of thought.

We evaluate BDH-CQ on the public ARC-AGI-1 evaluation set and use controlled ARC-like interventions to study what the model learns from demonstrations.

A 150M-parameter configuration achieves **29.5% pass@2** on the public ARC-AGI-1 evaluation set at a computed inference cost of **$0.0007 per task**. This is 11× cheaper per task than GPT-5.6 Luna (Low), following an 80% price reduction on July 30.

The architecture has also been tested in pretraining experiments ranging from 1B to 600B parameters, demonstrating Transformer-like scaling while retaining BDH-CQ's recurrent latent-reasoning capabilities.

## Paper and Blog Post

This repository accompanies the following paper:

> B. Engdahl, A. Kosowski, J. Chorowski, Z. Stamirowska, P. Uznański, J. Jiang, R. Phadke, R. Kinas, and R. Zhong. [*BDH-CQ: Introducing In-Context Learning with Recurrent Latent Reasoning*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09888).

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For a broader introduction and discussion, read the [accompanying blog post](https://pathway.com/blog/pathway-150m-model-breaks-arc-agi-1-cost-efficiency-frontier).

## ARC-AGI-1 Efficiency Frontier

![Pathway ARC-AGI efficiency chart](assets/Pathway_ARC-AGI_result_chart.png)

## What You'll Find in This Repository

As a public benchmark, ARC-AGI-1 cannot fully isolate few-shot rule induction from potential prior familiarity with its tasks.

To provide a complementary measure, `arc-task-gen` creates a private evaluation set with similar properties, enabling meaningful comparisons between public-benchmark performance and performance on newly generated tasks.

The generated `tasks.json` file follows the standard ARC format:

```json
{
  "train": [],
  "test": []
}
```

It is compatible with existing ARC evaluation harnesses.

Follow the instructions in [`instructions.md`](instructions.md) to start generating tasks.

## Independent Reproduction

BDH-CQ's ARC-AGI-1 results were evaluated and reproduced by Łukasz Ka