Neuron-based Personality Trait Induction in Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Deng, Jia, Tang, Tianyi, Yin, Yanbin, Yang, Wenhao, Zhao, Wayne Xin, Wen, Ji-Rong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916441779863552
author Deng, Jia
Tang, Tianyi
Yin, Yanbin
Yang, Wenhao
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Wen, Ji-Rong
author_facet Deng, Jia
Tang, Tianyi
Yin, Yanbin
Yang, Wenhao
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Wen, Ji-Rong
contents Large language models (LLMs) have become increasingly proficient at simulating various personality traits, an important capability for supporting related applications (e.g., role-playing). To further improve this capacity, in this paper, we present a neuron-based approach for personality trait induction in LLMs, with three major technical contributions. First, we construct PersonalityBench, a large-scale dataset for identifying and evaluating personality traits in LLMs. This dataset is grounded in the Big Five personality traits from psychology and is designed to assess the generative capabilities of LLMs towards specific personality traits. Second, by leveraging PersonalityBench, we propose an efficient method for identifying personality-related neurons within LLMs by examining the opposite aspects of a given trait. Third, we develop a simple yet effective induction method that manipulates the values of these identified personality-related neurons. This method enables fine-grained control over the traits exhibited by LLMs without training and modifying model parameters. Extensive experiments validate the efficacy of our neuron identification and trait induction methods. Notably, our approach achieves comparable performance as fine-tuned models, offering a more efficient and flexible solution for personality trait induction in LLMs. We provide access to all the mentioned resources at https://github.com/RUCAIBox/NPTI.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_12327
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Neuron-based Personality Trait Induction in Large Language Models
Deng, Jia
Tang, Tianyi
Yin, Yanbin
Yang, Wenhao
Zhao, Wayne Xin
Wen, Ji-Rong
Computation and Language
Large language models (LLMs) have become increasingly proficient at simulating various personality traits, an important capability for supporting related applications (e.g., role-playing). To further improve this capacity, in this paper, we present a neuron-based approach for personality trait induction in LLMs, with three major technical contributions. First, we construct PersonalityBench, a large-scale dataset for identifying and evaluating personality traits in LLMs. This dataset is grounded in the Big Five personality traits from psychology and is designed to assess the generative capabilities of LLMs towards specific personality traits. Second, by leveraging PersonalityBench, we propose an efficient method for identifying personality-related neurons within LLMs by examining the opposite aspects of a given trait. Third, we develop a simple yet effective induction method that manipulates the values of these identified personality-related neurons. This method enables fine-grained control over the traits exhibited by LLMs without training and modifying model parameters. Extensive experiments validate the efficacy of our neuron identification and trait induction methods. Notably, our approach achieves comparable performance as fine-tuned models, offering a more efficient and flexible solution for personality trait induction in LLMs. We provide access to all the mentioned resources at https://github.com/RUCAIBox/NPTI.
title Neuron-based Personality Trait Induction in Large Language Models
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.12327