REAR: A Relevance-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Framework for Open-Domain Question Answering

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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Yuhao, Ren, Ruiyang, Li, Junyi, Zhao, Wayne Xin, Liu, Jing, Wen, Ji-Rong
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Wang, Yuhao
Ren, Ruiyang
Li, Junyi
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Liu, Jing
Wen, Ji-Rong
author_facet Wang, Yuhao
Ren, Ruiyang
Li, Junyi
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Liu, Jing
Wen, Ji-Rong
contents Considering the limited internal parametric knowledge, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has been widely used to extend the knowledge scope of large language models (LLMs). Despite the extensive efforts on RAG research, in existing methods, LLMs cannot precisely assess the relevance of retrieved documents, thus likely leading to misleading or even incorrect utilization of external knowledge (eg., retrieved documents). To address this issue, in this paper, we propose REAR, a RElevance-Aware Retrieval-augmented approach for open-domain question answering (QA). As the key motivation, we aim to enhance the self-awareness regarding the reliability of external knowledge for LLMs, so as to adaptively utilize external knowledge in RAG systems. Specially, we develop a novel architecture for LLM-based RAG systems, by incorporating a specially designed assessment module that precisely assesses the relevance of retrieved documents. Furthermore, we propose an improved training method based on bi-granularity relevance fusion and noise-resistant training. By combining the improvements in both architecture and training, our proposed REAR can better utilize external knowledge by effectively perceiving the relevance of retrieved documents. Experiments on four open-domain QA tasks show that REAR significantly outperforms previous a number of competitive RAG approaches. Our codes can be accessed at https://github.com/RUCAIBox/REAR.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_17497
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle REAR: A Relevance-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Framework for Open-Domain Question Answering
Wang, Yuhao
Ren, Ruiyang
Li, Junyi
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Liu, Jing
Wen, Ji-Rong
Computation and Language
Information Retrieval
Considering the limited internal parametric knowledge, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has been widely used to extend the knowledge scope of large language models (LLMs). Despite the extensive efforts on RAG research, in existing methods, LLMs cannot precisely assess the relevance of retrieved documents, thus likely leading to misleading or even incorrect utilization of external knowledge (eg., retrieved documents). To address this issue, in this paper, we propose REAR, a RElevance-Aware Retrieval-augmented approach for open-domain question answering (QA). As the key motivation, we aim to enhance the self-awareness regarding the reliability of external knowledge for LLMs, so as to adaptively utilize external knowledge in RAG systems. Specially, we develop a novel architecture for LLM-based RAG systems, by incorporating a specially designed assessment module that precisely assesses the relevance of retrieved documents. Furthermore, we propose an improved training method based on bi-granularity relevance fusion and noise-resistant training. By combining the improvements in both architecture and training, our proposed REAR can better utilize external knowledge by effectively perceiving the relevance of retrieved documents. Experiments on four open-domain QA tasks show that REAR significantly outperforms previous a number of competitive RAG approaches. Our codes can be accessed at https://github.com/RUCAIBox/REAR.
title REAR: A Relevance-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Framework for Open-Domain Question Answering
topic Computation and Language
Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17497