arXiv AI

GeoRisk-RAG: A Hierarchy-Aware Risk Framework for Improving RAG Reliability through Selective Answering

GeoRisk-RAG is a hierarchy‑aware framework that improves the reliability of Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) by incorporating geographic validity. It estimates geographic applicability using a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)‑based distance during context retrieval, enabling selective answering. Experiments on a wildfire‑related QA dataset show that GeoRisk‑RAG reduces false confidence rates from ~0.090 to 0.009 and aligns better with human preferences.

arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 2

Network-based Spatial Context Retrieval for Open-weight LLMs: A Faithfulness Benchmark for Grounded Geographic Reasoning

The paper introduces a network‑based spatial context retrieval pipeline that uses pedestrian street networks and open data (OpenStreetMap, GHS‑POP) to generate compact spatial briefs for open‑weight large language models. It then builds a faithfulness benchmark that labels each model claim by its source—whether grounded in the brief or drawn from training knowledge—and tests models against planted false premises across multiple cities and model configurations. The study finds that model family and generation influence resistance to false premises more than model size, revealing dimensions of spatial reasoning not captured by traditional correctness metrics.

By Joan Perez
arXiv Computation and Language
Aug 27

ReliableRAG: Combating Misinformation in Retrieval-Augmented Generation via Reliability-Guided Reasoning Chains

ReliableRAG is a new framework for Retrieval-Augmented Generation that tackles misinformation in multi‑hop question answering. It extracts structured triples from retrieved documents, evaluates each triple’s reliability by combining semantic relevance to the query with credibility, and keeps only the top‑K reliable, non‑redundant triples. Using these refined triples, the system builds robust reasoning chains that filter out deceptive misinformation and produce accurate, trustworthy answers.

By Jinpu Jiang, Xuan Wu, Wenhao Song, Bo Yang, You Zhou, Hongwei Ge, Heow Pueh Lee, Yanchun Liang, Chunguo Wu
arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 7

ConfRAG: Confidence-Guided Retrieval-Augmenting Generation

ConfRAG introduces a confidence-guided approach to reduce hallucinations in large language models and selectively trigger Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) only when the model is uncertain. The ConfQA fine‑tuning strategy trains the model to answer correctly or respond with "I am unsure," achieving a drop in hallucination rates from 20‑40% to below 5% across factuality benchmarks. Building on ConfQA, ConfRAG limits external retrievals by more than 30% while maintaining over 95% accuracy in ideal scenarios.

By Yin Huang, Yifan Ethan Xu, Kai Sun, Vera Yan, Alicia Sun, Haidar Khan, Jimmy Nguyen, Jingxiang Chen, Mohammad Kachuee, Zhaojiang Lin, Yue Liu, Aaron Colak, Anuj Kumar, Wen-tau Yih, Xin Luna Dong
arXiv AI
Oct 12

GeoFitBench-LLM: A Benchmark for Assessing Large Language Models' Capabilities in Geospatial Data Requirements Elicitation for Geo-Analytic Tasks

GeoFitBench-LLM is a benchmark designed to evaluate large language models (LLMs) on their ability to elicit geospatial data requirements for geo‑analytic tasks. It focuses on two reasoning dimensions—spatio‑temporal relational and semantic grounding—and uses a provider‑independent schema to encode ground‑truth requirements. Experiments on seven models show that while many can identify necessary resources, accurately specifying fitness‑for‑use remains challenging, with GPT‑5.4 Thinking recovering all resources in 66.67% of cases.

By Amirhossein Vahdat, Thierry Badard, Luc Lamontagne
arXiv AI
Oct 9

RAG-Stress: Probing the Limits of Evidence Reliance in Retrieval-Augmented Generation

The paper introduces RAG‑Stress, a diagnostic protocol that tests how retrieval‑augmented generation models handle misleading evidence. By fixing the question and reference answer, editing a single assertion to support an incorrect answer, and varying source‑priority policies and evidence positions, the study measures misleading rate (MR) and clean accuracy across fifteen systems on multiple QA datasets. Results show that prioritizing documents increases MR by 10.9–13.5 percentage points, with the highest MR when the misleading span appears at the end of the evidence.

By Shunyuan Zhou, Hao Chen, Tianyu Wang, Goose Lin, Zaiyuan Wang, Haiying Zhao
arXiv AI
Sep 24

The Path Matters: Evaluating Small Language Models Beyond Answer Accuracy in KGQA

The paper investigates how small language models (SLMs) perform in knowledge graph question answering (KGQA) when evaluated on the reasoning paths they take, rather than just the final answer. Using the THESEUS navigation and traceability framework, the authors test frozen, off‑the‑shelf SLMs as local action policies that choose graph actions and decide when to stop, without any task‑specific training or free‑form answer generation. By measuring both Hits@1 and Path Edit Distance (PED) across the Kinship and MQuAKE‑ST datasets, the study finds that models vary significantly in both answer accuracy and path fidelity, and that prompting can either help or hurt navigation depending on the model. "whyItMatters":"The results show that evaluating SLMs solely on endpoint accuracy can be misleading, highlighting the need to assess reasoning path fidelity in KGQA tasks."

By Eduin E. Hernandez, Sergio A. Diaz, Luis F. Garcia, Nurassyl Askar, Stefano Rini
arXiv AI
Aug 26

PlaceSeek: Human-Centered Geospatial Retrieval of Urban Outdoor Places via Semantic Grounding and Affective Alignment

PlaceSeek is a human‑centered geospatial retrieval framework that maps natural‑language queries to street‑view images by decomposing queries into functional and affective sub‑intents. It uses a Semantic Grounding Module to verify that candidate images contain the physical evidence needed for the intended activity, and an Affective Alignment Module to re‑rank these candidates based on human urban perception judgments. Evaluated on 31,956 Milan street‑view locations, PlaceSeek achieves high precision and ranking metrics, outperforming several vision‑language baselines and demonstrating the importance of both physical grounding and affective alignment for complex urban spatial queries.

By Ziqi Cui, Shangyu Lou