用动态检验方法自动判断大模型何时可停止生成,省时又可靠。
Anytime-Valid Answer Sufficiency Certificates for LLM Generation via Sequential Information Lift
- 通过追踪信息增益的统计过程,实时判断生成是否足够
- 减少22%-28%生成长度,仅增加12%计算开销
- 适合需要高效验证的场景,但不保证内容绝对正确
我们提出Sequential-EDFL(经验动态形式提升),将任意时间有效的序列检验应用于语言模型生成终止。该方法跟踪信息提升(即全模型与故意弱化的‘骨架’基线之间的对数似然比),使用自归一化经验-Bernstein e过程,在任意停止时间下仍能提供正式的delta级误差控制。该控制防止因信息不足而过早停止,但不保证事实正确性或幻觉抑制。通过在线均值估计处理未知中心问题,利用混合e过程整合多参数,并支持分布漂移下的自适应重置。在六个基准上,Sequential-EDFL相比序列基线减少22%-28%生成长度,计算开销仅增加12%。我们引入自动化骨架(蒸馏子模型和随机logits),并验证其在不同骨架族中的鲁棒性。将EDFL与轻量级正确性门(句边界+验证器)结合,可提升任务正确率,同时保持任意时间有效保证,仅延迟停止。其证书控制信息充分性,而非事实正确性:即使有门控,仍有10.9%停止序列错误(无门控时为13.2%-22.7%)。EDFL作为第一阶段过滤器,可大幅降低验证负担:对停止序列应用门控后,83%的停止可被验证,仅需对剩余17%及所有未停止序列进行完整验证。该方法非安全关键领域的独立解决方案。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We introduce Sequential-EDFL (Empirical Dynamic Formal Lift), which applies anytime-valid sequential testing to language model generation stopping. Our approach tracks information lift, defined as the log-likelihood ratio between the full model and deliberately weakened "skeleton" baselines, using self-normalized empirical-Bernstein e-processes that provide formal delta-level error control regardless of stopping time. This delta guarantee controls premature stopping when information lift is insufficient relative to the skeleton, and it does not imply delta control of factual incorrectness or hallucinations. We handle unknown centering through online mean estimation, combine multiple parameters via mixture e-processes, and support adaptive resets under distributional drift. On six benchmarks, Sequential-EDFL reduces generation length by 22 to 28 percent relative to sequential baselines while maintaining delta-level control with 12 percent computational overhead. We introduce automated skeletons (distilled submodels and randomized logits) and show robustness across skeleton families. Composing EDFL with a lightweight correctness gate (sentence boundaries plus a verifier) improves end-task correctness while preserving anytime-valid guarantees by only delaying stopping. Our certificates control information sufficiency, not factual correctness. Specifically, 10.9 percent of stopped sequences remain incorrect even with the gate (13.2 to 22.7 percent without it). EDFL serves as a first-stage filter that can reduce verification burden: when applied to stopped sequences, the gate validates 83 percent of stops, requiring full verification only for the remaining 17 percent, plus all non-stopped sequences. EDFL is not a standalone solution for safety-critical domains.
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