Mitigating Propensity Bias of Large Language Models for Recommender Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Guixian, Yuan, Guan, Cheng, Debo, Liu, Lin, Li, Jiuyong, Zhang, Shichao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866908312533991424
author Zhang, Guixian
Yuan, Guan
Cheng, Debo
Liu, Lin
Li, Jiuyong
Zhang, Shichao
author_facet Zhang, Guixian
Yuan, Guan
Cheng, Debo
Liu, Lin
Li, Jiuyong
Zhang, Shichao
contents The rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs) creates new opportunities for recommender systems, especially by exploiting the side information (e.g., descriptions and analyses of items) generated by these models. However, aligning this side information with collaborative information from historical interactions poses significant challenges. The inherent biases within LLMs can skew recommendations, resulting in distorted and potentially unfair user experiences. On the other hand, propensity bias causes side information to be aligned in such a way that it often tends to represent all inputs in a low-dimensional subspace, leading to a phenomenon known as dimensional collapse, which severely restricts the recommender system's ability to capture user preferences and behaviours. To address these issues, we introduce a novel framework named Counterfactual LLM Recommendation (CLLMR). Specifically, we propose a spectrum-based side information encoder that implicitly embeds structural information from historical interactions into the side information representation, thereby circumventing the risk of dimension collapse. Furthermore, our CLLMR approach explores the causal relationships inherent in LLM-based recommender systems. By leveraging counterfactual inference, we counteract the biases introduced by LLMs. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our CLLMR approach consistently enhances the performance of various recommender models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_20052
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mitigating Propensity Bias of Large Language Models for Recommender Systems
Zhang, Guixian
Yuan, Guan
Cheng, Debo
Liu, Lin
Li, Jiuyong
Zhang, Shichao
Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
The rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs) creates new opportunities for recommender systems, especially by exploiting the side information (e.g., descriptions and analyses of items) generated by these models. However, aligning this side information with collaborative information from historical interactions poses significant challenges. The inherent biases within LLMs can skew recommendations, resulting in distorted and potentially unfair user experiences. On the other hand, propensity bias causes side information to be aligned in such a way that it often tends to represent all inputs in a low-dimensional subspace, leading to a phenomenon known as dimensional collapse, which severely restricts the recommender system's ability to capture user preferences and behaviours. To address these issues, we introduce a novel framework named Counterfactual LLM Recommendation (CLLMR). Specifically, we propose a spectrum-based side information encoder that implicitly embeds structural information from historical interactions into the side information representation, thereby circumventing the risk of dimension collapse. Furthermore, our CLLMR approach explores the causal relationships inherent in LLM-based recommender systems. By leveraging counterfactual inference, we counteract the biases introduced by LLMs. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our CLLMR approach consistently enhances the performance of various recommender models.
title Mitigating Propensity Bias of Large Language Models for Recommender Systems
topic Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.20052