arXiv:2503.11232cs.LGcs.CL2025-03被引 10

用可解释特征干预提升大模型隐私安全,精准删减敏感信息不伤模型性能。

PrivacyScalpel: Enhancing LLM Privacy via Interpretable Feature Intervention with Sparse Autoencoders

  • 通过稀疏自编码器定位并分离出含敏感信息的单一语义特征
  • 在Gemma2-2b和Llama2-7b上将邮件泄露率从5.15%降至0.0%
  • 比传统神经元级干预更优,适合关注隐私与性能平衡的研究者

大语言模型(LLMs)在自然语言处理中表现卓越,但存在记忆并泄露个人身份信息(PII)的重大隐私风险。现有缓解策略如差分隐私和神经元级干预常导致模型性能下降或无法有效防止泄露。为此,我们提出PrivacyScalpel,一种基于模型可解释性的隐私保护框架,能识别并减轻PII泄露同时保持性能。该框架包含三步:(1) 特征探测,识别编码高敏感度信息的模型层;(2) 稀疏自编码,利用k-Sparse Autoencoder(k-SAE)解耦并隔离隐私敏感特征;(3) 特征级干预,采用定向删除与向量引导抑制泄露。在微调于Enron数据集的Gemma2-2b和Llama2-7b上评估显示,PrivacyScalpel将邮件泄露率从5.15%降低至0.0%,同时保持超过99.4%的原始模型性能。尤其值得注意的是,该方法在隐私-效用权衡上优于神经元级干预,表明作用于稀疏、单义特征比操纵多义神经元更有效。本方法不仅增强大模型隐私,还揭示了PII记忆机制,推动模型可解释性与安全部署发展。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in natural language processing but also pose significant privacy risks by memorizing and leaking Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Existing mitigation strategies, such as differential privacy and neuron-level interventions, often degrade model utility or fail to effectively prevent leakage. To address this challenge, we introduce PrivacyScalpel, a novel privacy-preserving framework that leverages LLM interpretability techniques to identify and mitigate PII leakage while maintaining performance. PrivacyScalpel comprises three key steps: (1) Feature Probing, which identifies layers in the model that encode PII-rich representations, (2) Sparse Autoencoding, where a k-Sparse Autoencoder (k-SAE) disentangles and isolates privacy-sensitive features, and (3) Feature-Level Interventions, which employ targeted ablation and vector steering to suppress PII leakage. Our empirical evaluation on Gemma2-2b and Llama2-7b, fine-tuned on the Enron dataset, shows that PrivacyScalpel significantly reduces email leakage from 5.15\% to as low as 0.0\%, while maintaining over 99.4\% of the original model's utility. Notably, our method outperforms neuron-level interventions in privacy-utility trade-offs, demonstrating that acting on sparse, monosemantic features is more effective than manipulating polysemantic neurons. Beyond improving LLM privacy, our approach offers insights into the mechanisms underlying PII memorization, contributing to the broader field of model interpretability and secure AI deployment.

大模型隐私可解释性特征干预稀疏编码

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