arXiv:2506.06382stat.MLcs.AI2025-06被引 6

大模型幻觉无法根治,因内部机制注定无法同时保证真实、可信、完整与最优。

On the Fundamental Impossibility of Hallucination Control in Large Language Models

  • 将推理视为知识组件竞价,揭示幻觉是内在机制必然结果
  • 任何聚合方式都无法同时满足真实、可信、参与度与最优性四要素
  • 真相在模型外,需外部证据验证,但何为证据由人决定

大型语言模型会产生幻觉。本文表明幻觉在某些情况下不可避免,并探讨应对之道。我们将推理建模为思想拍卖,模型各组件基于部分知识竞争输出答案。我们证明了不可能定理:当查询引发组件对共有事实的争议时,任何聚合其报告的方式都无法同时做到:如实呈现知识、避免过度自信、保持相关组件参与、给出最佳答案。必有一项妥协,表现为虚构细节、无根据自信、忽略知识或回答过弱。此问题并非特定设计缺陷,即便组件输出概率或在Transformer内部,联合答案仍会获得高于内部贡献的置信度。语义预算失衡无法内生解决。事实真相在模型之外,最坏情况下内部信号无法认证真相。可认证的是支持度。给定外部授权证据后,仅凭答案与证据即可判断其是否在证据范围内,且我们证明了该检查何时可计算。但正确答案可能缺乏支持,有支持的答案也可能错误。何为证据、答案能延伸多远、容忍何种失败,皆需人为抉择,模型无法代劳。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large language models hallucinate. This paper shows when that is unavoidable and what we can do about it. We model inference as an auction of ideas, in which a model's components, each holding partial knowledge, compete to shape the answer. We then prove Impossibility Theorems showing that whenever a query makes LLM components contest a fact they hold in common, no aggregation of their reports can at once report that knowledge truthfully, avoid manufacturing confidence beyond what it supports, keep the relevant components engaged, and give the best answer. Something must give, and each failure is familiar: a fabricated detail, unearned confidence, ignored knowledge, or a needlessly weak reply. This is no artifact of one design. It reappears when components report probabilities, and inside the transformer itself, where the combined answer is credited more confidence than the internal contributions supplied. The unbalanced semantic budget cannot be settled from within. Factual truth lies outside the model, and in the worst case no internal signal can certify it. What can be certified is support. Given externally authorized evidence, checking that an answer stays within what the evidence entails needs only the answer and the evidence, and we prove when that check is computable. However, a correct answer can lack support, and a supported answer can be false. What counts as evidence, how far beyond it we allow answers to reach, and which failures we can live with are choices no model can make for us.

大模型幻觉不可行性推理机制

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