Calibrated Large Language Models for Binary Question Answering

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Giovannotti, Patrizio, Gammerman, Alexander
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Giovannotti, Patrizio
Gammerman, Alexander
author_facet Giovannotti, Patrizio
Gammerman, Alexander
contents Quantifying the uncertainty of predictions made by large language models (LLMs) in binary text classification tasks remains a challenge. Calibration, in the context of LLMs, refers to the alignment between the model's predicted probabilities and the actual correctness of its predictions. A well-calibrated model should produce probabilities that accurately reflect the likelihood of its predictions being correct. We propose a novel approach that utilizes the inductive Venn--Abers predictor (IVAP) to calibrate the probabilities associated with the output tokens corresponding to the binary labels. Our experiments on the BoolQ dataset using the Llama 2 model demonstrate that IVAP consistently outperforms the commonly used temperature scaling method for various label token choices, achieving well-calibrated probabilities while maintaining high predictive quality. Our findings contribute to the understanding of calibration techniques for LLMs and provide a practical solution for obtaining reliable uncertainty estimates in binary question answering tasks, enhancing the interpretability and trustworthiness of LLM predictions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_01122
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Calibrated Large Language Models for Binary Question Answering
Giovannotti, Patrizio
Gammerman, Alexander
Computation and Language
Machine Learning
Quantifying the uncertainty of predictions made by large language models (LLMs) in binary text classification tasks remains a challenge. Calibration, in the context of LLMs, refers to the alignment between the model's predicted probabilities and the actual correctness of its predictions. A well-calibrated model should produce probabilities that accurately reflect the likelihood of its predictions being correct. We propose a novel approach that utilizes the inductive Venn--Abers predictor (IVAP) to calibrate the probabilities associated with the output tokens corresponding to the binary labels. Our experiments on the BoolQ dataset using the Llama 2 model demonstrate that IVAP consistently outperforms the commonly used temperature scaling method for various label token choices, achieving well-calibrated probabilities while maintaining high predictive quality. Our findings contribute to the understanding of calibration techniques for LLMs and provide a practical solution for obtaining reliable uncertainty estimates in binary question answering tasks, enhancing the interpretability and trustworthiness of LLM predictions.
title Calibrated Large Language Models for Binary Question Answering
topic Computation and Language
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.01122