about
Examining the robustness of LLM evaluation to distributional assumptions (arxiv.org)
2 points by PaulHoule on May 4, 2024 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: Benchmarks score models by averaging over test questions as if they were a random sample of real use. When the study groups questions that are similar or trip up the same models, model rankings on major benchmarks can change.

Abstract · Examining the robustness of LLM evaluation to the distributional assumptions of benchmarks

Benchmarks have emerged as the central approach for evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs). The research community often relies on a model's average performance across the test prompts of a benchmark to evaluate the model's performance. This is consistent with the assumption that the test prompts within a benchmark represent a random sample from a real-world distribution of interest. We note that this is generally not the case; instead, we hold that the distribution of interest varies according to the specific use case. We find that (1) the correlation in model performance across test prompts is non-random, (2) accounting for correlations across test prompts can change model rankings on major benchmarks, (3) explanatory factors for these correlations include semantic similarity and common LLM failure points.

Melissa Ailem, Katerina Marazopoulou, Charlotte Siska, James Bono
arXiv:2404.16966 · cs.CL · submitted Apr 25, 2024 · updated Jun 5, 2024
abstract · pdf · html

add comment on HN