用确定性真值评估大模型长文本生成中的不确定性,发现信心评分在细粒度上失效。
Evaluating LLM Uncertainty in Long-Form Generation Using Deterministic Ground Truth

- 构建六项程序生成的确定性长文本基准,支持逐原子级评估
- 发现信心排序在细粒度上严重失效,但粗粒度线级仍有效
- 揭示错误传播与上下文长度增长是两大独立错误驱动因素
随着大模型生成内容越来越长,有效的不确定性估计需在细粒度层面识别错误,而非直接丢弃整个输出。现有方法虽存在,但评估不确定性在任意粒度(从单个标记到整段生成)时面临挑战,且极易受标签不完美影响,因此零噪声基准至关重要;然而,长文本生成基准通常依赖有缺陷的标签而非确定性真值。我们提出Single-answer Atomic Long-form Target(SALT),一个包含六项程序生成任务的基准,具有单一确定性长文本真值,可实现无需外部评判的逐原子级正确性、校准性和排序评估。基于SALT,我们对50+个LLM的分析揭示:不同置信度函数主导不同不确定性方面;即使在更粗粒度的行级单位中分离性更清晰,原子级的信心排序仍基本失效。SALT还支持生成过程中的可控原子级干预,揭示未来错误的两个可分离驱动因素:前缀污染导致的传播误差(受全局上下文正确性主导),以及由答案-上下文长度增加引起的有限退化。最后,我们证明,通过思维链提示或训练内化推理会带来权衡:提升准确性的同时恶化信心排序。这些发现直接影响需要可靠错误识别与缓解的风险关键应用。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
As LLMs generate increasingly long outputs, effective uncertainty estimation must identify errors at fine-grained levels rather than discard entire responses. While such methods exist, evaluating uncertainty at any resolution (token to an entire generation) is challenging and highly sensitive to label imperfections, making zero-noise benchmarks essential; yet, long-form generation benchmarks tend to rely on fallible labels rather than deterministic ground truth. We introduce Single-answer Atomic Long-form Target (SALT), a benchmark of six procedurally generated tasks with single deterministic long textual ground truths, enabling unit-level evaluation of correctness, calibration, and ranking without external judges. Equipped with SALT, our analysis of 50+ LLMs reveals key insights: We identify which confidence functions dominate each uncertainty aspect and show that confidence ranking largely breaks at atomic resolution, even when clearer separability emerges at coarser line-level units. SALT further enables controlled atom-level interventions throughout generation, revealing two separable drivers of future errors: propagation from corrupted prefixes, dominated by global context correctness, and bounded degradation from increasing answer-context length. Finally, we demonstrate that reasoning, via Chain-of-Thought prompting or internalized through training, introduces a trade-off, improving accuracy while degrading confidence ranking. These findings directly impact risk-critical applications requiring reliable error identification and mitigation.
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