Rethinking Environments for Long-Horizon Work — Rayan Garg, Theta Software
Long-horizon for AI agents is a scalar metric, not a binary category, and shifts rapidly.
“long horizon is really kind of a scalar metric”
Theta Software co-founders argue that 'long horizon' for AI agents must be treated as a relative, scalar measure rather than a fixed binary threshold, using the METR benchmark's human-time-equivalence methodology as a reference point. They note that what counts as long-horizon shifts quickly as agent capabilities accelerate — a task considered long-horizon a year ago may not qualify today. The talk frames environment design for these evolving horizons as a core engineering challenge, though the content is cut off before concrete solutions are presented.