The paper introduces a new measure of generative‑process diversity for language models, using Normalised Compression Distance on raw outputs after controlling for permutation effects. Across 38 models, this metric uncovers population structure that semantic similarity misses and predicts lower correlated failures across ten benchmark families, independent of semantic similarity or model capability. The authors argue that higher generative‑process diversity reduces correlated failures in multi‑model systems, offering a practical tool for safety‑relevant applications.
By Ross Tieman, Evan Markou
arXiv:2609.16454v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Recent work by Doshi and Hauser (2024), Bisbee et al. (2024), and Xie et al. (2026) raises concerns that outputs from large language models (LLMs) tend...
By Kirill Skobelev, Eric Fithian, X. Y. Han
The paper investigates whether large language models (LLMs) capture the full diversity of outputs present in their training data. Using an information‑theoretic approach, the authors compare the conditional entropy of model‑generated outputs with that of the training data, finding that LLMs consistently produce outputs with lower conditional entropy across various models, scales, and decoding strategies. They also extend the analysis to image and text‑conditioned generators, propose a post‑hoc correction method based on matrix‑entropy projection to increase conditional diversity, and provide theoretical guarantees and an efficient algorithm for this correction.
By Youqi Wu, Farzan Farnia
The paper argues that large language models cannot achieve perfect reliability for any task, even with unlimited scale. It establishes that each generative task has an inherent reliability ceiling set by how much output uncertainty can be resolved from observable context, with a resolvable part that can be improved by more context and a subjective part tied to task ambiguity. The authors derive a scaling law showing that performance is limited by the scarcer resource—either training data or model capacity—and explain how this law explains phenomena such as retrieval augmentation and catastrophic forgetting.
By Subhabrata Majumdar
arXiv:2607. 14112v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are evaluated as though perfect reliability is achievable for any task given sufficient scale.
By Subhabrata Majumdar
arXiv:2606. 01811v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Measuring the diversity of creative outputs is central to evaluating post-training mode collapse, comparing decoding strategies, and quantifying creative behavior in both AI and human writing.
By Matthew Khoriaty, David Williams-King, Shi Feng