Large Language Models Suffer From Their Own Output: An Analysis of the Self-Consuming Training Loop

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Briesch, Martin, Sobania, Dominik, Rothlauf, Franz
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Briesch, Martin
Sobania, Dominik
Rothlauf, Franz
author_facet Briesch, Martin
Sobania, Dominik
Rothlauf, Franz
contents Large Language Models (LLM) are already widely used to generate content for a variety of online platforms. As we are not able to safely distinguish LLM-generated content from human-produced content, LLM-generated content is used to train the next generation of LLMs, giving rise to a self-consuming training loop. From the image generation domain we know that such a self-consuming training loop reduces both quality and diversity of images finally ending in a model collapse. However, it is unclear whether this alarming effect can also be observed for LLMs. Therefore, we present the first study investigating the self-consuming training loop for LLMs. Further, we propose a novel method based on logic expressions that allows us to unambiguously verify the correctness of LLM-generated content, which is difficult for natural language text. We find that the self-consuming training loop produces correct outputs, however, the output declines in its diversity depending on the proportion of the used generated data. Fresh data can slow down this decline, but not stop it. Given these concerning results, we encourage researchers to study methods to negate this process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_16822
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Large Language Models Suffer From Their Own Output: An Analysis of the Self-Consuming Training Loop
Briesch, Martin
Sobania, Dominik
Rothlauf, Franz
Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Large Language Models (LLM) are already widely used to generate content for a variety of online platforms. As we are not able to safely distinguish LLM-generated content from human-produced content, LLM-generated content is used to train the next generation of LLMs, giving rise to a self-consuming training loop. From the image generation domain we know that such a self-consuming training loop reduces both quality and diversity of images finally ending in a model collapse. However, it is unclear whether this alarming effect can also be observed for LLMs. Therefore, we present the first study investigating the self-consuming training loop for LLMs. Further, we propose a novel method based on logic expressions that allows us to unambiguously verify the correctness of LLM-generated content, which is difficult for natural language text. We find that the self-consuming training loop produces correct outputs, however, the output declines in its diversity depending on the proportion of the used generated data. Fresh data can slow down this decline, but not stop it. Given these concerning results, we encourage researchers to study methods to negate this process.
title Large Language Models Suffer From Their Own Output: An Analysis of the Self-Consuming Training Loop
topic Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16822