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Evaluations of large language models (LLMs) suffer from instability, where small changes of random factors such as few-shot examples can lead to drastic fluctuations of scores and even model rankings. Moreover, different LLMs can have…
Influence functions (IF) have been seen as a technique for explaining model predictions through the lens of the training data. Their utility is assumed to be in identifying training examples "responsible" for a prediction so that, for…
Language models are commonly fine-tuned via reinforcement learning to alter their behavior or elicit new capabilities. Datasets used for these purposes, and particularly human preference datasets, are often noisy. The relatively small size…
As machine learning is increasingly deployed in the real world, it is paramount that we develop the tools necessary to analyze the decision-making of the models we train and deploy to end-users. Recently, researchers have shown that…
There is an especially strong need in modern large-scale data analysis to prioritize samples for manual inspection. For example, the inspection could target important mislabeled samples or key vulnerabilities exploitable by an adversarial…
Pretrained Large Language Models (LLMs) achieve strong performance across a wide range of tasks, yet exhibit substantial variability in the various layers' training quality with respect to specific downstream applications, limiting their…
Influence functions estimate the effect of removing a training point on a model without the need to retrain. They are based on a first-order Taylor approximation that is guaranteed to be accurate for sufficiently small changes to the model,…
In-context learning (ICL) enables large language models to perform new tasks by conditioning on a sequence of examples. Most prior work reasonably and intuitively assumes that which examples are chosen has a far greater effect on…
Motivated by the goals of dataset pruning and defect identification, a growing body of methods have been developed to score individual examples within a dataset. These methods, which we call "example difficulty scores", are typically used…
The goal of data attribution is to trace the model's predictions through the learning algorithm and back to its training data. thereby identifying the most influential training samples and understanding how the model's behavior leads to…
It is not only what we ask large language models (LLMs) to do that matters, but also how we prompt. Phrases like "This is urgent" or "As your supervisor" can shift model behavior without altering task content. We study this effect as…
Network meta-analysis is an evidence synthesis method for comparing the effectiveness of multiple available treatments. To justify evidence synthesis, consistency is an important assumption; however, existing methods founded on statistical…
This paper poses two critical issues in evaluating base models (without post-training): (1) Unstable evaluation during training: in the early stages of pre-training, the models lack the capability to answer questions as required, leading to…
Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable reasoning capabilities in math and coding, often bolstered by post-training on the chain-of-thoughts (CoTs) generated by stronger models. However, existing strategies for curating…
In-context learning is a promising paradigm that utilizes in-context examples as prompts for the predictions of large language models. These prompts are crucial for achieving strong performance. However, since the prompts need to be sampled…
Data attribution seeks to trace model behavior back to the training examples that shaped it, enabling debugging, auditing, and data valuation at scale. Classical influence-function methods offer a principled foundation but remain…
Off-policy evaluation in reinforcement learning offers the chance of using observational data to improve future outcomes in domains such as healthcare and education, but safe deployment in high stakes settings requires ways of assessing its…
In reinforcement learning (RL) with experience replay, experiences stored in a replay buffer influence the RL agent's performance. Information about how these experiences influence the agent's performance is valuable for various purposes,…
In-context Learning (ICL) is the ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) to perform new tasks when conditioned on prompts comprising a few task examples. However, ICL performance can be critically sensitive to the choice of examples. To…
Addressing data integrity challenges, such as unlearning the effects of data poisoning after model training, is necessary for the reliable deployment of machine learning models. State-of-the-art influence functions, such as EK-FAC and TRAK,…