Critical Phase Transition in Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Nakaishi, Kai, Nishikawa, Yoshihiko, Hukushima, Koji
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Nakaishi, Kai
Nishikawa, Yoshihiko
Hukushima, Koji
author_facet Nakaishi, Kai
Nishikawa, Yoshihiko
Hukushima, Koji
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated impressive performance. To understand their behaviors, we need to consider the fact that LLMs sometimes show qualitative changes. The natural world also presents such changes called phase transitions, which are defined by singular, divergent statistical quantities. Therefore, an intriguing question is whether qualitative changes in LLMs are phase transitions. In this work, we have conducted extensive analysis on texts generated by LLMs and suggested that a phase transition occurs in LLMs when varying the temperature parameter. Specifically, statistical quantities have divergent properties just at the point between the low-temperature regime, where LLMs generate sentences with clear repetitive structures, and the high-temperature regime, where generated sentences are often incomprehensible. In addition, critical behaviors near the phase transition point, such as a power-law decay of correlation and slow convergence toward the stationary state, are similar to those in natural languages. Our results suggest a meaningful analogy between LLMs and natural phenomena.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_05335
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Critical Phase Transition in Large Language Models
Nakaishi, Kai
Nishikawa, Yoshihiko
Hukushima, Koji
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Machine Learning
Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated impressive performance. To understand their behaviors, we need to consider the fact that LLMs sometimes show qualitative changes. The natural world also presents such changes called phase transitions, which are defined by singular, divergent statistical quantities. Therefore, an intriguing question is whether qualitative changes in LLMs are phase transitions. In this work, we have conducted extensive analysis on texts generated by LLMs and suggested that a phase transition occurs in LLMs when varying the temperature parameter. Specifically, statistical quantities have divergent properties just at the point between the low-temperature regime, where LLMs generate sentences with clear repetitive structures, and the high-temperature regime, where generated sentences are often incomprehensible. In addition, critical behaviors near the phase transition point, such as a power-law decay of correlation and slow convergence toward the stationary state, are similar to those in natural languages. Our results suggest a meaningful analogy between LLMs and natural phenomena.
title Critical Phase Transition in Large Language Models
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.05335