Artificial intelligence agent memory drift develops when implementation changes but old plans, fixes, rules, benchmark details, or assumptions remain available as though they were current. The drift can be difficult to notice because the stored text may still sound specific and authoritative.
Mitigation includes expiry, provenance, version binding, deduplication, read tracking, periodic audit, and preferring authoritative current sources. Durable rules should live where maintainers update them alongside the system, while temporary task notes should not become permanent by default.
