Search the Lightest Path in AI Contexts: Recursive AI Funnels for Reliable Innovation — Constitutional, Metaheuristic and Process-Based Architectures for Recursive Search, Verification, Memory and Action

Abstract

2. Definitions and Key Terms 3. Introduction: From Generation Scarcity to Process Scarcity 4. Evolution of AI Systems: From Generation to Process 5. Frontier Architectures and the Emergence of Process Control 6. The Funnel Problem 7. Failure Modes of Recursive AI 8. Nature, Variational Principles and the Lightest-Path Analogy 9. Entropy, Self-Organization and Syntropy 10. Heuristics, Metaheuristics and Recursive Search 11. Evolutionary Foundation-Model Systems 12. Constitutional AI to Constitutional Process Control 13. From Large Language Models to Large Process Models 14. Recursive Funnel Architecture 15. Search the Lightest Path 16. Path-Generativity 17. Swarm Funnel Intelligence 18. Deliberate Instability: The Shake Engine 19. Memory, State and Provenance 20. Evaluator Hierarchies and Reality Contact 21. Physical AI and Embodied Funnels 22. Generalization Across Domains 23. Evaluation Framework 24. Proposed Experiments and Ablation Studies 25. Compute, Tokens and Adaptive Resource Allocation 26. Limitations and Failure Cases 27. Funnel Intelligence 28. Research Agenda 2 Search the Lightest Path 29. Conclusion Part II — References • References (APA style, 83 sources, 52 dated 2025 or later) Part III — Figures, Appendices and Closing Audits • Figure Specifications (nine publication-ready figure descriptions, in addition to the twenty-nine diagrams embedded above) • Appendix A: Funnel Failure Taxonomy • Appendix B: Funnel Property Taxonomy • Appendix C: Proposed Process Constitution • Appendix D: Experimental and Ablation Protocol • Novelty Audit • Claim–Evidence Audit • Open Questions • Next Research Steps • Final Quality Gate Self-Check 3 Search the Lightest Path 1. Abstract Key points • Generation cost keeps falling. Reliability now depends on the process around generation: evaluate, act, observe, decide what to try next. • This paper specifies that process: the Recursive AI Funnel. It is governed by Search the Lightest Path — Pareto selection, not scalar minimization. • Evidence base: 107 sources. 67 dated 2025 or later. 35 foundational. 5 fringe, kept only to critique. • Finding 1: multi-agent failures cluster in orchestration and verification, not raw generation [1]. Weak-verifier ensembles close most of the gap to an ideal one [2]. • Finding 2: "nature searches the lightest path" splits into seven distinct claims. One narrow optics case is close to exact. Evolution has no scalar objective [F28]. • The architecture is a tuple, a layered evaluator stack, three-part memory plus provenance, a metaheuristic/swarm layer, and a shake engine for deliberate destabilization. • The one new proposal: Constitutional Process Control. It governs a whole recursive process by written principle, not just one output. No prior source does this, checked across nine vocabularies. Unbuilt, stated as a target only. • No experiment reported here has run. Sections 23–24 specify a protocol. Section 28 lists the resulting research agenda. Every evidence-dependent claim is labeled proposed or future. 2. Definitions and Key Terms Key points • This section collects every term the paper coins or uses in a specific, non-obvious sense, in one place, before first use. • Standard AI terms (LLM, agent, token) are not redefined here; only terms this paper gives a precise meaning. • Each entry: the term, a one-line definition, and the section where it is developed in full. Term Definition Developed in Passible path A path reachable now, given current constraints and evidence — not merely conceivable. A candidate can be possible Section 3 4 Author ORCID: 0009-0008-6255-7724. License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.