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arXiv:2404.01019cs.CL

Source-Aware Training Enables Knowledge Attribution in Language Models

Muhammad Khalifa, David Wadden, Emma Strubell, Honglak Lee, Lu Wang, Iz Beltagy, Hao Peng

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) learn a vast amount of knowledge during pretraining, but they are often oblivious to the source(s) of such knowledge. We investigate the problem of intrinsic source citation, where LLMs are required to cite the pretraining source supporting a generated response. Intrinsic source citation can enhance LLM transparency, interpretability, and verifiability. To give LLMs such ability, we explore source-aware training -- a recipe that involves (i) training the LLM to associate unique source document identifiers with the knowledge in each document, followed by (ii) an instruction-tuning stage to teach the LLM to cite a supporting pretraining source when prompted. Source-aware training borrows from existing pretraining/fine-tuning frameworks and requires minimal changes to the model architecture or implementation. Through experiments on synthetic data, we demonstrate that our training recipe can enable faithful attribution to the pretraining data without a substantial impact on the model's perplexity compared to standard pretraining. Our findings also highlight the importance of pretraining data augmentation in achieving attribution. Code and data available here: \url{https://github.com/mukhal/intrinsic-source-citation}

arXiv comments
COLM '24
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.CLComputation and Language cs.AIArtificial Intelligence

On Hacker News

Linked by 2 identifiable commenters in 7 comments across 7 threads, from Sep 2024 to Oct 2026. Found in 1 HN submission from Jul 2024 to Jul 2024. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments7 threads

    • @DeepSeek teams, why not train your next series of LLM models with source-aware training? https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01019 LLM's would be able to answer questions, delineating exactly which facts/assumptions/reasonings are prior work and from where (this URL, that book, etc.)…

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

    • I don't like the term 'hallucination' to be honest, not because it anthropomorphizes, but because it lacks a formal definition in the context of machine learning. Suppose parents tell their children that there exists this man called "Santa Claus" who comes down the chimney to…

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

  1. Local AI needs to be the norm 1 comment
    • In this case I think you'd want to use Source-Aware-Training [0] to associate a "timestamp" vector to each native context chunk (perhaps overlapping) of conversation, probably the weights using a kind of Gray code so that the LLM has the immediate out-of-native context history…

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

  2. The Problem with LLMs 1 comment
    • To a large extent both "hallucinations" and "plagiarism" can be addressed with the same training method: source-aware training. https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01019 At the frontier of science we have speculations, which until proper measurements become possible, are unknown to be…

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

    • Less than 800 words, but more if you follow the link :) https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01019 "Source-Aware Training Enables Knowledge Attribution in Language Models"

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

  3. Knowledge and memory 1 comment
    • > The article you shared raises an interesting point by comparing human memory with LLMs, but I think the analogy can only go so far. The analogy may be much less wishy-washy than you imagine: check out "Source-aware training" https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01019 Everybody quickly…

      DoctorOetkerView on HNParent context

    • Sort of like this? It does help: Source-Aware Training Enables Knowledge Attribution in Language Models (https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01019) From the abstract: > ... To give LLMs such ability, we explore source-aware training -- a recipe that involves (i) training the LLM to…

      numeriView on HNParent context

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