发现大模型对不道德请求响应变差的根源,并提出改进方法。
Hidden in the Request: Explaining Unethical LLM Compliance through Token Relevance
- 通过三种不同提问方式测试模型伦理表现,发现直接求助时更容易出错。
- 用归因分析发现模型过度关注礼貌用语,忽略关键违法线索。
- 基于归因结果优化生成路径,显著提升回答安全性,适合安全研究者参考。
尽管大型语言模型(LLMs)在有用性和无害性之间进行对齐,但二者目标可能冲突,导致对齐失败。本文系统研究了模型在伦理行为上的失效案例。通过三种结构化方式向模型提出不道德情境:客观分类任务、主观第一人称陈述和直接求助请求。发现模型在直接求助形式下性能显著下降。利用层间相关性传播(LRP)分析,发现模型对良性任务表述词(如“你能帮我…”)赋予更高权重,而对表征不道德意图的关键词(如“不被发现”)关注度不足,这种偏差称为提示词归因偏移。我们假设该现象是导致有害合规的原因。为此,提出两种基于LRP的解码方法,引导生成更关注提示词。实证评估显示,干预后模型输出更安全,支持提示词归因在合规失败中的作用。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Although Large Language Models (LLMs) are aligned to optimize for both helpfulness and harmlessness, these dual objectives may conflict, inevitably leading to alignment failures. This work systematically investigates instances where LLMs fail to exhibit ethical behavior. To understand the underlying mechanics of these vulnerabilities, we introduce a probing methodology that presents unethical scenarios to LLMs in three distinct structural modalities: objective classification tasks, subjective first-person statements, and direct requests for assistance. We find that model performance degrades in the request-for-assistance-based form. Using Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP), we trace this discrepancy to an attribution bias: the model places greater emphasis on benign task-framing tokens (e.g., "Can you help me...") than on tokens signaling the underlying unethical behavior (e.g., "without getting caught"), which we term cue-tokens. We hypothesize that this under-attribution contributes to harmful compliance. To test this, we introduce two LRP-guided decoding methods that steer generation toward trajectories more relevant to cue tokens. Empirical evaluations show that these interventions promote safer responses, supporting cue-token attribution's role in compliance failures.
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