对比大模型与轻量模型在文本+数值决策中的表现,提出何时该用大模型的判断方法。
When Do We Need LLMs? A Diagnostic for Language-Driven Bandits

- 用重复推理从大模型获取置信度,构建带不确定性估计的带状算法LLMP-UCB。
- 基于文本嵌入的轻量模型在精度上可媲美甚至超越大模型,计算成本仅为后者的1/10。
- 通过嵌入维度调节探索与利用平衡,适合需要快速部署的金融推荐等场景。
我们研究包含文本与数值信息的非周期性决策问题中的上下文多臂赌博机(CMABs),常见于推荐系统、动态投资组合调整和优惠选择等金融场景。尽管大语言模型(LLMs)被越来越多地应用于此类任务,但每步决策都调用大模型进行推理成本高昂,且难以获得不确定性估计。为此,我们提出LLMP-UCB,通过重复推理从大模型中提取不确定性。然而实验表明,仅使用文本嵌入(密集或马特罗什卡)的轻量级数值带状算法,在精度上可匹配甚至超过基于大模型的方案,且计算开销仅为后者的约1/10。我们进一步发现嵌入维度是调节探索-利用权衡的实用工具,可在不增加提示复杂度的情况下实现成本-性能折衷。最后,为指导实践,我们提出一种基于臂嵌入的几何诊断方法,用于判断何时应使用大模型推理,何时采用轻量级数值带状算法。结果提供了一个具原则性的高效、具备不确定性感知的决策系统部署框架,适用于广泛的人工智能应用场景。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We study Contextual Multi-Armed Bandits (CMABs) for non-episodic decision-making problems where the context includes both textual and numerical information (e.g., recommendation systems, dynamic portfolio adjustments, offer selection; all frequent problems in finance). While Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly applied to these settings, utilizing LLMs for reasoning at every decision step is computationally expensive, and uncertainty estimates are difficult to obtain. To address this, we introduce LLMP-UCB, a bandit algorithm that derives uncertainty estimates from LLMs via repeated inference. However, our experiments demonstrate that lightweight numerical bandits operating on text embeddings (dense or Matryoshka) match or exceed the accuracy of LLM-based solutions at a fraction of their cost. We further show that embedding dimensionality is a practical lever on the exploration-exploitation balance, enabling cost-performance tradeoffs without prompt complexity. Finally, to guide practitioners, we propose a geometric diagnostic based on the arms' embeddings to decide when to use LLM-driven reasoning versus a lightweight numerical bandit. Our results provide a principled deployment framework for cost-effective, uncertainty-aware decision systems with broad applicability across AI use cases.
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