Asking Clarifying Questions for Preference Elicitation With Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Montazeralghaem, Ali, Tennenholtz, Guy, Boutilier, Craig, Meshi, Ofer
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Montazeralghaem, Ali
Tennenholtz, Guy
Boutilier, Craig
Meshi, Ofer
author_facet Montazeralghaem, Ali
Tennenholtz, Guy
Boutilier, Craig
Meshi, Ofer
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have made it possible for recommendation systems to interact with users in open-ended conversational interfaces. In order to personalize LLM responses, it is crucial to elicit user preferences, especially when there is limited user history. One way to get more information is to present clarifying questions to the user. However, generating effective sequential clarifying questions across various domains remains a challenge. To address this, we introduce a novel approach for training LLMs to ask sequential questions that reveal user preferences. Our method follows a two-stage process inspired by diffusion models. Starting from a user profile, the forward process generates clarifying questions to obtain answers and then removes those answers step by step, serving as a way to add ``noise'' to the user profile. The reverse process involves training a model to ``denoise'' the user profile by learning to ask effective clarifying questions. Our results show that our method significantly improves the LLM's proficiency in asking funnel questions and eliciting user preferences effectively.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_12015
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Asking Clarifying Questions for Preference Elicitation With Large Language Models
Montazeralghaem, Ali
Tennenholtz, Guy
Boutilier, Craig
Meshi, Ofer
Artificial Intelligence
Large Language Models (LLMs) have made it possible for recommendation systems to interact with users in open-ended conversational interfaces. In order to personalize LLM responses, it is crucial to elicit user preferences, especially when there is limited user history. One way to get more information is to present clarifying questions to the user. However, generating effective sequential clarifying questions across various domains remains a challenge. To address this, we introduce a novel approach for training LLMs to ask sequential questions that reveal user preferences. Our method follows a two-stage process inspired by diffusion models. Starting from a user profile, the forward process generates clarifying questions to obtain answers and then removes those answers step by step, serving as a way to add ``noise'' to the user profile. The reverse process involves training a model to ``denoise'' the user profile by learning to ask effective clarifying questions. Our results show that our method significantly improves the LLM's proficiency in asking funnel questions and eliciting user preferences effectively.
title Asking Clarifying Questions for Preference Elicitation With Large Language Models
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12015