研究大模型更新后哪些样本会出错,找出可预测的信号。
No Universal Signal Predicts Sample-Level LLM Regression under Version Updates

- 对比单模型与跨版本信号,评估其预测错误的能力
- 不同任务中最佳信号不同,无通用最优解
- 部分信号在无标签时仍有效,支持智能回退策略
前沿大模型频繁更新,通常整体性能提升,但个别样本可能从正确变为错误。本文研究如何在推理时利用信号预测这种样本级退化。我们在六个基准、三类任务(多项选择题、数学推理、代码生成)和六组模型更新中,比较单模型信号(置信度、对数几率差、注意力熵)与跨版本信号(输出KL散度、似然漂移、词元级KL、表示漂移)的表现。结果表明:(1) 信号有效性依赖任务类型——置信度在多选题和简单数学中表现最好,而似然/KL信号在复杂数学和代码任务中更优;(2) 没有信号在所有更新中都最优;(3) 部分跨版本信号即使在置信度失效时仍具信息量,且无需标签,支持选择性回退机制,将高风险样本送回旧模型。实践者可根据任务特性选择合适信号。代码已公开于https://github.com/jiashengsally/llm-regression-signals。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Frontier LLMs are updated frequently and typically outperform their predecessors in aggregate. But aggregate gains say little about individual samples: an update can still cause sample-level regression, where a response correct under the old model becomes incorrect under the new one. This paper studies how to predict such regressions from signals available at inference time. We compare single-model signals (confidence, logit margin, attention entropy) against cross-version signals (output KL divergence, likelihood drift, token-level KL, representation drift) under a unified added-value test that isolates each signal's gain over a confidence baseline. Across six benchmarks in three task families (multiple-choice question answering, or MCQ; math reasoning; code generation) and six model update pairs, we find that (1) signal effectiveness is task-dependent: confidence is strongest on MCQ and simpler math, while likelihood/KL signals give the most frequent gains on harder math and code; (2) no signal is universally best across model updates either; and (3) some cross-version signals stay informative even when confidence fails, including without labels, which supports a proof-of-concept selective fallback that routes high-risk samples back to the old model. Practitioners can use these task-level patterns to choose which regression signal to trust for a given update. Code is available at https://github.com/jiashengsally/llm-regression-signals.
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