Evaluating Large Language Models on Time Series Feature Understanding: A Comprehensive Taxonomy and Benchmark

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Fons, Elizabeth, Kaur, Rachneet, Palande, Soham, Zeng, Zhen, Balch, Tucker, Veloso, Manuela, Vyetrenko, Svitlana
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Fons, Elizabeth
Kaur, Rachneet
Palande, Soham
Zeng, Zhen
Balch, Tucker
Veloso, Manuela
Vyetrenko, Svitlana
author_facet Fons, Elizabeth
Kaur, Rachneet
Palande, Soham
Zeng, Zhen
Balch, Tucker
Veloso, Manuela
Vyetrenko, Svitlana
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) offer the potential for automatic time series analysis and reporting, which is a critical task across many domains, spanning healthcare, finance, climate, energy, and many more. In this paper, we propose a framework for rigorously evaluating the capabilities of LLMs on time series understanding, encompassing both univariate and multivariate forms. We introduce a comprehensive taxonomy of time series features, a critical framework that delineates various characteristics inherent in time series data. Leveraging this taxonomy, we have systematically designed and synthesized a diverse dataset of time series, embodying the different outlined features, each accompanied by textual descriptions. This dataset acts as a solid foundation for assessing the proficiency of LLMs in comprehending time series. Our experiments shed light on the strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art LLMs in time series understanding, revealing which features these models readily comprehend effectively and where they falter. In addition, we uncover the sensitivity of LLMs to factors including the formatting of the data, the position of points queried within a series and the overall time series length.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_16563
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evaluating Large Language Models on Time Series Feature Understanding: A Comprehensive Taxonomy and Benchmark
Fons, Elizabeth
Kaur, Rachneet
Palande, Soham
Zeng, Zhen
Balch, Tucker
Veloso, Manuela
Vyetrenko, Svitlana
Computation and Language
Large Language Models (LLMs) offer the potential for automatic time series analysis and reporting, which is a critical task across many domains, spanning healthcare, finance, climate, energy, and many more. In this paper, we propose a framework for rigorously evaluating the capabilities of LLMs on time series understanding, encompassing both univariate and multivariate forms. We introduce a comprehensive taxonomy of time series features, a critical framework that delineates various characteristics inherent in time series data. Leveraging this taxonomy, we have systematically designed and synthesized a diverse dataset of time series, embodying the different outlined features, each accompanied by textual descriptions. This dataset acts as a solid foundation for assessing the proficiency of LLMs in comprehending time series. Our experiments shed light on the strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art LLMs in time series understanding, revealing which features these models readily comprehend effectively and where they falter. In addition, we uncover the sensitivity of LLMs to factors including the formatting of the data, the position of points queried within a series and the overall time series length.
title Evaluating Large Language Models on Time Series Feature Understanding: A Comprehensive Taxonomy and Benchmark
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.16563