大模型在处理模糊概念时会强制统一解释,埋下认知风险。
Ambiguity Collapse by LLMs: A Taxonomy of Epistemic Risks
- 将模糊术语强行转为单一解释,跳过人类协商过程
- 导致概念扭曲、决策依据失真,影响系统公平性
- 适合关注AI伦理、内容审核与政策设计的读者
大型语言模型(LLMs)越来越多地被用于解读具有歧义、开放性和价值负载的术语。平台依赖它们对“仇恨言论”或“煽动性内容”等争议性概念进行标注;招聘者用其判断谁算“合格”;研究机构则训练模型依据类似宪法原则的模糊规范(如“偏见”或“合法”)自我监管。本文提出“模糊坍缩”现象:当模型面对本应存在多种合理解释的术语时,却生成单一结论,绕过了人类通常通过辩论、协商和辩护来建构意义的过程。基于跨学科对模糊性的认识,我们构建了三个层面的认知风险分类:过程层面(剥夺思辨机会,抑制认知能力发展)、输出层面(扭曲行动依据与概念内涵)、生态层面(重塑共同词汇、解释规范及概念演化路径)。通过三个案例研究揭示这些风险,并提出多层级缓解策略,涵盖训练、部署设计、界面支持和提示管理,旨在构建能显化、保留并负责任治理模糊性的系统。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to make sense of ambiguous, open-textured, value-laden terms. Platforms routinely rely on LLMs for content moderation, asking them to label text based on disputed concepts like "hate speech" or "incitement"; hiring managers may use LLMs to rank who counts as "qualified"; and AI labs increasingly train models to self-regulate under constitutional-style ambiguous principles such as "biased" or "legitimate". This paper introduces ambiguity collapse: a phenomenon that occurs when an LLM encounters a term that genuinely admits multiple legitimate interpretations, yet produces a singular resolution, in ways that bypass the human practices through which meaning is ordinarily negotiated, contested, and justified. Drawing on interdisciplinary accounts of ambiguity as a productive epistemic resource, we develop a taxonomy of the epistemic risks posed by ambiguity collapse at three levels: process (foreclosing opportunities to deliberate, develop cognitive skills, and shape contested terms), output (distorting the concepts and reasons agents act upon), and ecosystem (reshaping shared vocabularies, interpretive norms, and how concepts evolve over time). We illustrate these risks through three case studies, and conclude by sketching multi-layer mitigation principles spanning training, institutional deployment design, interface affordances, and the management of underspecified prompts, with the goal of designing systems that surface, preserve, and responsibly govern ambiguity.
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