Exploring the Personality Traits of LLMs through Latent Features Steering

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Shu, Zhu, Shenzhe, Liu, Liang, Hu, Lijie, Li, Mengdi, Wang, Di
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Yang, Shu
Zhu, Shenzhe
Liu, Liang
Hu, Lijie
Li, Mengdi
Wang, Di
author_facet Yang, Shu
Zhu, Shenzhe
Liu, Liang
Hu, Lijie
Li, Mengdi
Wang, Di
contents Large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced dialogue systems and role-playing agents through their ability to generate human-like text. While prior studies have shown that LLMs can exhibit distinct and consistent personalities, the mechanisms through which these models encode and express specific personality traits remain poorly understood. To address this, we investigate how various factors, such as cultural norms and environmental stressors, encoded within LLMs, shape their personality traits, guided by the theoretical framework of social determinism. Inspired by related work on LLM interpretability, we propose a training-free approach to modify the model's behavior by extracting and steering latent features corresponding to factors within the model, thereby eliminating the need for retraining. Furthermore, we analyze the implications of these factors for model safety, focusing on their impact through the lens of personality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10863
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exploring the Personality Traits of LLMs through Latent Features Steering
Yang, Shu
Zhu, Shenzhe
Liu, Liang
Hu, Lijie
Li, Mengdi
Wang, Di
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced dialogue systems and role-playing agents through their ability to generate human-like text. While prior studies have shown that LLMs can exhibit distinct and consistent personalities, the mechanisms through which these models encode and express specific personality traits remain poorly understood. To address this, we investigate how various factors, such as cultural norms and environmental stressors, encoded within LLMs, shape their personality traits, guided by the theoretical framework of social determinism. Inspired by related work on LLM interpretability, we propose a training-free approach to modify the model's behavior by extracting and steering latent features corresponding to factors within the model, thereby eliminating the need for retraining. Furthermore, we analyze the implications of these factors for model safety, focusing on their impact through the lens of personality.
title Exploring the Personality Traits of LLMs through Latent Features Steering
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10863