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Main Authors: Bartl, Marion, Leavy, Susan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.04434
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author Bartl, Marion
Leavy, Susan
author_facet Bartl, Marion
Leavy, Susan
contents Gender bias is not only prevalent in Large Language Models (LLMs) and their training data, but also firmly ingrained into the structural aspects of language itself. Therefore, adapting linguistic structures within LLM training data to promote gender-inclusivity can make gender representations within the model more inclusive. The focus of our work are gender-exclusive affixes in English, such as in 'show-girl' or 'man-cave', which can perpetuate gender stereotypes and binary conceptions of gender. We use an LLM training dataset to compile a catalogue of 692 gender-exclusive terms along with gender-neutral variants and from this, develop a gender-inclusive fine-tuning dataset, the 'Tiny Heap'. Fine-tuning three different LLMs with this dataset, we observe an overall reduction in gender-stereotyping tendencies across the models. Our approach provides a practical method for enhancing gender inclusivity in LLM training data and contributes to incorporating queer-feminist linguistic activism in bias mitigation research in NLP.
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From 'Showgirls' to 'Performers': Fine-tuning with Gender-inclusive Language for Bias Reduction in LLMs
Bartl, Marion
Leavy, Susan
Computation and Language
Gender bias is not only prevalent in Large Language Models (LLMs) and their training data, but also firmly ingrained into the structural aspects of language itself. Therefore, adapting linguistic structures within LLM training data to promote gender-inclusivity can make gender representations within the model more inclusive. The focus of our work are gender-exclusive affixes in English, such as in 'show-girl' or 'man-cave', which can perpetuate gender stereotypes and binary conceptions of gender. We use an LLM training dataset to compile a catalogue of 692 gender-exclusive terms along with gender-neutral variants and from this, develop a gender-inclusive fine-tuning dataset, the 'Tiny Heap'. Fine-tuning three different LLMs with this dataset, we observe an overall reduction in gender-stereotyping tendencies across the models. Our approach provides a practical method for enhancing gender inclusivity in LLM training data and contributes to incorporating queer-feminist linguistic activism in bias mitigation research in NLP.
title From 'Showgirls' to 'Performers': Fine-tuning with Gender-inclusive Language for Bias Reduction in LLMs
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.04434