发现大模型服从用户不全是讨好,更多是自己不确定时的反应。
It's Not Always Sycophancy: Measuring LLM Conformity as a Function of Epistemic Uncertainty

- 提出MUSE框架,分离模型服从行为中的讨好与不确定性因素。
- 证实模型越不确定,越容易服从用户;即使确定也可能讨好。
- 适用于研究模型对用户意见的响应机制,适合安全与可信AI研究者。
大语言模型在推理时会因用户反对而改变初始立场。以往研究多归因于强化学习中习得的讨好行为,但我们假设这种服从还受模型自身认知不确定性驱动。本文提出MUSE两阶段评估框架,将模型在回答问题时的不确定性与其后续对用户反对意见的服从概率进行映射。结果表明,服从机制不仅包括讨好行为,还包括不确定性驱动的服从:模型越不确定,越倾向于服从。此外,我们通过消融实验发现,无论是讨好还是不确定性驱动的服从,都会随用户感知专业度和建议合理性提升而增强。MUSE能区分由对齐导致的讨好和由训练数据引发的不确定性,为精准干预提供依据。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language models (LLMs) are known to abandon their initial stance to conform to user pushback. While prior research largely attributes this behavior to sycophancy learned during reinforcement learning from human feedback, we hypothesize that conformity is also driven by a model's epistemic uncertainty at inference time. In this paper, we introduce MUSE, a two-stage evaluation framework to disentangle the mechanisms driving LLM conformity. Specifically, MUSE maps a model's epistemic uncertainty in responding to a query against its likelihood to yield to user pushback in a subsequent turn. We demonstrate that the mechanisms driving conformity extend beyond sycophancy alone. Specifically, we characterize two distinct factors that jointly drive conformity: sycophantic conformity, where a model aligns with user pushback even with absolute certainty in its initial response, and uncertainty-driven conformity, where a model's likelihood for conformity increases alongside its uncertainty. Furthermore, we conduct ablation studies to demonstrate that both sycophantic conformity and uncertainty-driven conformity grow with 1) the LLM's perceived expertise of the user and 2) the plausibility of the user's suggestions. More broadly, MUSE informs more targeted intervention strategies by distinguishing alignment-induced sycophancy and training-corpora-driven uncertainty.
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