arXiv:2604.20854cs.IRcs.AI2026-04

让大模型更诚实:用证据分布替代信心分数,区分知识冲突与不确定性。

ERA: Evidence-based Reliability Alignment for Honest Retrieval-Augmented Generation

论文配图:ERA: Evidence-based Reliability Alignment for Honest Retrieval-Augmented Generation
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用狄利克雷分布建模内部与外部知识为独立信念质量
  • 通过达摩斯-谢弗理论量化信息源间的几何分歧,准确识别冲突
  • 显著提升拒绝回答的合理性,适合高可信度场景使用

检索增强生成(RAG)将语言模型锚定在事实证据上,但带来了内化参数与检索信息之间的知识冲突问题。现有可靠性方法通常依赖标量置信度,无法明确区分认知不确定性与数据固有模糊性。本文提出一种新框架ERA(基于证据的可靠性对齐),通过将置信度估计从标量概率转向显式证据分布,增强RAG系统的拒答行为。方法包含两个核心组件:(1) 上下文证据量化,利用狄利克雷分布将内部与外部知识建模为独立信念质量;(2) 知识冲突量化,借助达摩斯-谢弗理论(DST)严格度量信息源间的几何不一致。二者协同分离认知不确定性与随机不确定性,并根据检测到的冲突调整优化目标。在标准基准和自建泛化数据集上的实验表明,该方法显著优于基线,有效优化了答案覆盖率与拒答之间的权衡,且校准性能更优。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) grounds language models in factual evidence but introduces critical challenges regarding knowledge conflicts between internalized parameters and retrieved information. However, existing reliability methods, typically relying on scalar confidence, fail to explicitly distinguish between epistemic uncertainty and inherent data ambiguity in such hybrid scenarios. In this paper, we propose a new framework called ERA (Evidence-based Reliability Alignment) to enhance abstention behavior in RAG systems by shifting confidence estimation from scalar probabilities to explicit evidence distributions. Our method consists of two main components: (1) Contextual Evidence Quantification, which models internal and external knowledge as independent belief masses via the Dirichlet distribution, and (2) Quantifying Knowledge Conflict, which leverages Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST) to rigorously measure the geometric discordance between information sources. These components are used to disentangle epistemic uncertainty from aleatoric uncertainty and modulate the optimization objective based on detected conflicts. Experiments on standard benchmarks and a curated generalization dataset demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms baselines, optimizing the trade-off between answer coverage and abstention with superior calibration.

RAG可靠性置信度证据推理

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