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Main Authors: Lee, Sunbowen, Zhou, Junting, Ao, Chang, Li, Kaige, Du, Xinrun, He, Sirui, Wu, Haihong, Liu, Tianci, Liu, Jiaheng, Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid, Yang, Min, Liang, Yitao, Wen, Zhoufutu, Ni, Shiwen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12619
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author Lee, Sunbowen
Zhou, Junting
Ao, Chang
Li, Kaige
Du, Xinrun
He, Sirui
Wu, Haihong
Liu, Tianci
Liu, Jiaheng
Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid
Yang, Min
Liang, Yitao
Wen, Zhoufutu
Ni, Shiwen
author_facet Lee, Sunbowen
Zhou, Junting
Ao, Chang
Li, Kaige
Du, Xinrun
He, Sirui
Wu, Haihong
Liu, Tianci
Liu, Jiaheng
Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid
Yang, Min
Liang, Yitao
Wen, Zhoufutu
Ni, Shiwen
contents Model distillation is a fundamental technique in building large language models (LLMs), transferring knowledge from a teacher model to a student model. However, distillation can lead to model homogenization, reducing diversity among models and impairing their ability to robustly handle complex or novel tasks. These limitations underscore the need to systematically quantify the distillation process and its impact. In this work, we propose a framework to evaluate and quantify model distillation. Our method addresses two key aspects: (1) Identifying identity cognition contradictions to assess discrepancies in how models perceive and represent identity-related information, and (2) Analyzing multi-granularity response similarities across models to measure the extent of homogenization. Experimental results demonstrate two key insights: (1) Well-known closed-source and open-source LLMs usually exhibit high distillation degrees, except for Claude, Doubao, and Gemini. (2) Base LLMs show higher distillation degrees compared to aligned LLMs. By offering a systematic approach to improve the transparency of LLM data distillation, we call for LLMs with more independent development and more transparent technical reports to improve LLMs' robustness and safety. The code and data are available under https://github.com/Aegis1863/LLMs-Distillation-Quantification.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_12619
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantification of Large Language Model Distillation
Lee, Sunbowen
Zhou, Junting
Ao, Chang
Li, Kaige
Du, Xinrun
He, Sirui
Wu, Haihong
Liu, Tianci
Liu, Jiaheng
Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid
Yang, Min
Liang, Yitao
Wen, Zhoufutu
Ni, Shiwen
Computation and Language
Model distillation is a fundamental technique in building large language models (LLMs), transferring knowledge from a teacher model to a student model. However, distillation can lead to model homogenization, reducing diversity among models and impairing their ability to robustly handle complex or novel tasks. These limitations underscore the need to systematically quantify the distillation process and its impact. In this work, we propose a framework to evaluate and quantify model distillation. Our method addresses two key aspects: (1) Identifying identity cognition contradictions to assess discrepancies in how models perceive and represent identity-related information, and (2) Analyzing multi-granularity response similarities across models to measure the extent of homogenization. Experimental results demonstrate two key insights: (1) Well-known closed-source and open-source LLMs usually exhibit high distillation degrees, except for Claude, Doubao, and Gemini. (2) Base LLMs show higher distillation degrees compared to aligned LLMs. By offering a systematic approach to improve the transparency of LLM data distillation, we call for LLMs with more independent development and more transparent technical reports to improve LLMs' robustness and safety. The code and data are available under https://github.com/Aegis1863/LLMs-Distillation-Quantification.
title Quantification of Large Language Model Distillation
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12619