The Canonical Order Problem: When Large Language Models Are Unreliable Knowledge Bases for Multi-Valued Relations

The paper investigates how large language models (LLMs) handle multi‑valued relations when used as knowledge bases. It identifies a "canonical order problem," where LLMs internally organize such relations according to a fixed ordering (e.g., alphabetical or chronological). The authors analyze the generation process in three phases—retrieval, internal sorting, and selection—and show that deviating from the internal canonical order reduces the reliability of LLMs in producing complete sets for multi‑valued relations.

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