arXiv Machine Learning

How Do Language Models Choose Between Context and Memory?

arXiv AI
Aug 24

Can LLMs Introspect? A Reality Check

The paper questions whether large language models (LLMs) truly introspect by critiquing recent studies that claim they can detect and report their internal states. It proposes two necessary conditions for genuine introspection: privileged access to internal representations and second‑order computation that distinguishes from first‑order task performance. Re‑examining two existing paradigms, the authors find that apparent introspective abilities can be explained by input‑based classifiers or generic anomaly detection, concluding that current evidence does not support metacognitive monitoring in LLMs.

By Shashwat Singh, Tal Linzen, Shauli Ravfogel
arXiv AI
Jun 24

Quantifying Prior Dominance in RAG Systems

arXiv:2606. 23695v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) grounds Large Language Models in external knowledge, yet current evaluations rely on discrete heuristics that suffer from ''epistemic blindness'' - failing to distinguish genuine contextual information extraction from parametric memory recall.

By Barak Or
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 2

A Mechanistic View of Authority Hierarchy in LLM Sycophancy

arXiv:2607. 00415v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Authority bias poses a critical safety concern in language models: models systematically prioritize social cues from authority figures over factual consistency, swaying their answers based on source credibility rather than evidence.

By Emil Joswin, Srujananjali Medicherla, Priyanka Mary Mammen