arXiv Computation and Language

When RAG Fails to Equalize: Geo-bias in Factual Question Answering over Public Companies

The paper investigates whether retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) can uniformly correct factual errors in large language models (LLMs) by testing six LLMs on a benchmark of about 2,000 public companies. In a controlled factual QA setting, the authors evaluate the models under four conditions—no‑context, perfect context, misleading context, and distraction context—across four atomic attributes. Results show significant geographic disparities in baseline accuracy, and while perfect context improves performance, it does not eliminate these gaps; misleading context often leads models to copy incorrect information, and larger models only marginally reduce structural biases.

arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 10

Do LLMs Make More Mistakes If They Do Not Believe the Input Data?

The study investigates whether large language models (LLMs) are more prone to errors when they doubt the plausibility of input data, a phenomenon termed context‑memory conflict. Using non‑English and low‑resource language datasets, the authors generate text from factual, counterfactual, and fictional RDF triples in English, Czech, Slovak, and Upper Sorbian, and evaluate faithfulness with both human annotations and an LLM judge (Kimi K3). Contrary to expectations, the results show only a weak context‑memory conflict: counterfactual inputs receive slightly lower faithfulness scores than factual ones, and the choice of LLM judge can significantly affect perceived conflict strength.

By Peter Kochelka, Ale\v{s} Manuel Pap\'a\v{c}ek, Vojt\v{e}ch Dvo\v{r}\'ak, Ond\v{r}ej Du\v{s}ek
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 AI
Sep 15

Empirical Evaluation of Open-Source Large Language Models for Retrieval-Augmented Generation in ESG Domain

The paper evaluates seven open‑source large language models for retrieval‑augmented generation in the ESG reporting domain, using 498 real‑world ESG reports from EU‑listed companies and 100 synthetic QA pairs. Performance is measured with RAGAS metrics, showing strong retrieval scores but variable generation quality, especially in faithfulness and factual correctness. The results highlight significant differences across model architectures and underscore the need for domain‑specific fine‑tuning to improve factual accuracy.

By Motaz Saad, Anna Borrelli, Ivan Gentile, Kianna Kazemi, Francesco Piccialli, Antonella Longo
arXiv AI
Sep 10

No\=esis: Deterministic-First Retrieval with Two-Tier Context Hydration for Factuality-Critical Queries on Small Local Models

Noesis is a retrieval-augmented architecture designed for small local language models that prioritizes deterministic judgments before generation. It employs a fact layer, positional addressing, provenance scoping, and two-tier context hydration to ensure factual integrity, achieving parity with larger models on exact value accuracy and eliminating confabulated numbers. The system delivers single-generation queries with traceable, source‑linked outputs, improving performance in regulated domains.

By Nicola Cogotti
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 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
4d ago

KnowMT-Bench: Benchmarking Knowledge-Intensive Long-Form Question Answering in Multi-Turn Dialogues

arXiv:2509.21856v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Multi-Turn Long-Form Question Answering (MT-LFQA) is a key application paradigm of Large Language Models (LLMs) in knowledge-intensive domains. How...

By Junhao Chen, Yu Huang, Siyuan Li, Rui Yao, Hanqian Li, Hanyu Zhang, Jungang Li, Jian Chen, Bowen Wang, Xuming Hu
arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 21

The Bottleneck Is Retrieval, Not Reading: Diagnosing Evidence-Based Generation with RAG for Long Context Question Answering

arXiv:2610.26951v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is the dominant paradigm for grounding large language models in external corpora, but its similarity-driven, chunk...

By Debopriyo Banerjee, Owais Aijaz, Ahmer Tabassum, Zhuohan Xie, Preslav Nakov, Veselin Stoyanov
arXiv AI
Aug 19

Parametric Knowledge in RAG-SFT for Domain-Specific Document Generation

The paper investigates Retrieval-Augmented Generation fine‑tuning (RAG‑SFT) for generating requirements documents in electronics engineering, comparing two 7B models trained with different data strategies. It introduces a claim‑based evaluation pipeline, C‑FEX, and a new metric, Parametric Knowledge Precision (PKP), to assess factuality of model‑generated claims. Results show that fine‑tuned 7B models can match or surpass a 72B baseline, but standard metrics may mislead, and fine‑tuning reduces hallucination by encouraging more reliable use of parametric knowledge.

By Julian Oestreich, Maximilian Bley, Frank Binder, Lydia M\"uller, Andr\'e Alcalde, Maksym Sydorenkoq