测试大模型生成真实随机分布样本的能力,发现普遍表现不佳。
UnpredictaBench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Distributional Randomness in LLMs

- 构建448个分布采样任务,评估模型对目标分布的拟合能力。
- 在样本量100时,最高得分仅20%,无模型超40%。
- 适合研究模型不确定性建模、仿真系统可信度的学者。
我们提出UnpredictaBench,一个评估大语言模型(LLMs)捕捉真实底层分布能力的基准。随着LLMs被用于替代人类等实体参与经济模拟,许多模型趋向单一合理答案,无法体现真实系统的不可预测性。现有提升输出多样性的方法不足以应对此需求:模拟要求样本需校准至目标分布,而非仅多样化。UnpredictaBench聚焦于简化但根本的问题:从单个目标分布中采样,包括经典统计分布、随机程序生成的分布以及描述随机过程的自然语言场景。我们设计了448个此类问题,并引入KS@N作为通用评估指标,基于柯尔莫哥洛夫-斯米尔诺夫检验量化模型输出对黑箱目标分布的逼近程度。该指标表示在大小为N的样本下,模型输出与真实样本之间无法拒绝原假设的比率,越大越难。在开源和专有模型上测试发现分布能力差异显著:当生成样本量为100(即KS@100)时,得分从接近0到超过20%不等;无模型在KS@100上超过40%,表明分布采样仍有巨大提升空间。尽管增加推理可略微提高分数,但尚无直接解决方案。这说明即使简单分布模拟仍具挑战性,是将LLMs用作复杂系统替代品的必要前提。项目官网与资源见https://unpredictabenchmark.github.io/。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We introduce UnpredictaBench, an evaluation that tests the ability of large language models (LLMs) to capture true underlying distributions. As LLMs are increasingly used as substitutes for other entities (e.g., for humans in economic simulations), the tendency of many models to collapse towards a single plausible answer means a failure to capture the unpredictability of real systems. Recent work on improving output diversity is insufficient for this setting: simulation requires samples that are calibrated to a target distribution, not merely varied outputs. UnpredictaBench isolates a simplified but fundamental version of this problem: sampling outcomes from individual target distributions, including canonical statistical distributions, distributions induced by stochastic programs, and natural-language scenarios that describe random processes. We introduce 448 such problems together with KS@N, a general-purpose evaluation metric that quantifies how well a model outputs approximate black-box target distributions via the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test. This is the rate at which we fail to reject model samples of size N against ground-truth samples, with larger N indicating greater difficulty. Tested across open and proprietary models, we find a large spread in distributional capabilities. For instance, when models generate samples of size 100 (KS@100, our standard metric), scores range from near 0 to over 20%. No model is able to achieve over 40% at KS@100, showing significant headroom in distributional sampling as a capability. Although adding reasoning can somewhat increase scores, we find no immediate solution for this issue. UnpredictaBench shows that even simple distributional simulation remains challenging, making it a necessary first step toward using LLMs as stand-ins for complex systems. Project website and resources are available at https://unpredictabenchmark.github.io/.
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