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Main Authors: Feng, Shengyu, Kong, Xiang, Ma, Shuang, Zhang, Aonan, Yin, Dong, Wang, Chong, Pang, Ruoming, Yang, Yiming
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01920
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author Feng, Shengyu
Kong, Xiang
Ma, Shuang
Zhang, Aonan
Yin, Dong
Wang, Chong
Pang, Ruoming
Yang, Yiming
author_facet Feng, Shengyu
Kong, Xiang
Ma, Shuang
Zhang, Aonan
Yin, Dong
Wang, Chong
Pang, Ruoming
Yang, Yiming
contents Augmenting the multi-step reasoning abilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) has been a persistent challenge. Recently, verification has shown promise in improving solution consistency by evaluating generated outputs. However, current verification approaches suffer from sampling inefficiencies, requiring a large number of samples to achieve satisfactory performance. Additionally, training an effective verifier often depends on extensive process supervision, which is costly to acquire. In this paper, we address these limitations by introducing a novel verification method based on Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo (TSMC). TSMC sequentially refines its sampling effort to focus exploration on promising candidates, resulting in more efficient generation of high-quality solutions. We apply TSMC to LLMs by estimating the expected future rewards at partial solutions. This approach results in a more straightforward training target that eliminates the need for step-wise human annotations. We empirically demonstrate the advantages of our method across multiple math benchmarks, and also validate our theoretical analysis of both our approach and existing verification methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_01920
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Step-by-Step Reasoning for Math Problems via Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo
Feng, Shengyu
Kong, Xiang
Ma, Shuang
Zhang, Aonan
Yin, Dong
Wang, Chong
Pang, Ruoming
Yang, Yiming
Machine Learning
Augmenting the multi-step reasoning abilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) has been a persistent challenge. Recently, verification has shown promise in improving solution consistency by evaluating generated outputs. However, current verification approaches suffer from sampling inefficiencies, requiring a large number of samples to achieve satisfactory performance. Additionally, training an effective verifier often depends on extensive process supervision, which is costly to acquire. In this paper, we address these limitations by introducing a novel verification method based on Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo (TSMC). TSMC sequentially refines its sampling effort to focus exploration on promising candidates, resulting in more efficient generation of high-quality solutions. We apply TSMC to LLMs by estimating the expected future rewards at partial solutions. This approach results in a more straightforward training target that eliminates the need for step-wise human annotations. We empirically demonstrate the advantages of our method across multiple math benchmarks, and also validate our theoretical analysis of both our approach and existing verification methods.
title Step-by-Step Reasoning for Math Problems via Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01920