Reducing Hallucinations in Abstractive Summarization by Leveraging Domain-Conditional Mutual Information

Core Concepts

Introducing a decoding strategy based on domain-conditional pointwise mutual information (PMIDC) to reduce hallucination in abstractive summarization by considering the source text's domain.

Abstract

The paper proposes a decoding strategy called PMIDC (domain-conditional pointwise mutual information) to mitigate hallucination in abstractive summarization. Hallucination refers to the phenomenon where a model generates plausible but factually inconsistent text that is absent in the source text. The key insights are: The domain (or topic) of the source text triggers the model to generate text that is highly probable in the domain, leading to hallucination. PMIDC computes how much more likely a token becomes in the summary when conditioned on the input source text, compared to when the token is conditioned only on the domain of the source text. This effectively penalizes the model's tendency to fall back to domain-associated words when the model has high uncertainty about the generated token. PMIDC is an extension of Conditional Pointwise Mutual Information (CPMI), which does not capture the importance of the source domain in summarization. The authors use domain prompts, such as keywords, the first sentence, or a randomly selected sentence from the source text, to condition the generation probability of a token on the source domain. Experiments on the XSUM dataset show that PMIDC achieves significant improvements in faithfulness and relevance to source texts compared to baselines, with only a marginal decrease in ROUGE and BERTScore.

Stats

"Our latest economic data shows that many Scottish businesses will have a successful 2017..." "The Scottish Chambers of Commerce has issued a warning about the outlook for the economy in 2017." "The Scottish Chambers of Commerce has said it expects the economy to have a 'successful' year in 2017."

Quotes

"Our latest economic data shows that many Scottish businesses will have a successful 2017..." "The Scottish Chambers of Commerce has said it expects the economy to have a 'successful' year in 2017."

Key Insights Distilled From

Mitigating Hallucination in Abstractive Summarization with Domain-Conditional Mutual Information

by Kyubyung Cha... at arxiv.org 04-16-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.09480.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

What other types of domain information, beyond keywords, sentences, and concepts, could be explored to further improve the performance of PMIDC?

In addition to keywords, sentences, and concepts, exploring domain-specific entities, themes, and sentiment could further enhance the performance of PMIDC in abstractive summarization. Entities: Incorporating named entities related to the domain, such as people, organizations, or locations, can provide more context for the model to generate accurate and relevant summaries. By focusing on specific entities mentioned in the source text, the model can tailor the generated content to align closely with the source document. Themes: Identifying recurring themes or topics within the source text can guide the model in capturing the essence of the content. By analyzing the thematic elements present in the source document, PMIDC can prioritize generating text that reflects these central themes, leading to more coherent and on-topic summaries. Sentiment: Considering the sentiment or tone of the source text can help PMIDC generate summaries that not only convey factual information but also capture the emotional nuances present in the original content. By adjusting the generation probability based on the sentiment of the source document, the model can produce summaries that resonate with the overall mood of the text. By incorporating these additional types of domain information, PMIDC can further refine its decoding strategy to reduce hallucination and improve the faithfulness and relevance of the generated summaries.

How could PMIDC be extended to handle other types of text generation tasks beyond abstractive summarization, such as dialogue generation or story writing?

To adapt PMIDC for other text generation tasks like dialogue generation or story writing, the decoding strategy can be customized to suit the specific requirements of these tasks while maintaining the core principles of domain-conditional mutual information. Here are some ways PMIDC could be extended for different text generation tasks: Dialogue Generation: In dialogue generation, PMIDC can be modified to consider the conversational context and speaker attributes as part of the domain information. By incorporating information about the speakers, their personalities, and the ongoing dialogue history, the model can generate responses that are consistent with the dialogue flow and character traits. Story Writing: For story writing tasks, PMIDC can leverage narrative elements such as plot points, character arcs, and setting details as domain information. By conditioning the generation probability on these narrative components, the model can ensure coherence and consistency throughout the story, avoiding plot holes or inconsistencies. Multi-turn Conversations: When dealing with multi-turn conversations, PMIDC can maintain context across multiple utterances by incorporating a memory mechanism that retains information from previous turns. This way, the model can generate responses that build upon the dialogue history and maintain coherence throughout the conversation. By tailoring the domain-conditional mutual information approach of PMIDC to the specific characteristics and requirements of different text generation tasks, it can be effectively extended to handle a variety of applications beyond abstractive summarization.

What are the potential ethical considerations and risks associated with using PMIDC or similar techniques to generate text, and how can these be mitigated?

The use of PMIDC or similar techniques in text generation raises several ethical considerations and risks that need to be addressed to ensure responsible and ethical AI development. Some potential concerns include: Bias and Misinformation: There is a risk of perpetuating bias or generating misinformation if the model relies too heavily on domain-specific information without proper validation. This can lead to the dissemination of inaccurate or misleading content. Privacy and Data Security: Utilizing domain-specific data in text generation may raise privacy concerns if sensitive information is inadvertently included in the generated text. Safeguards must be in place to protect user data and ensure compliance with data protection regulations. Manipulation and Fraud: Text generated using PMIDC could be exploited for malicious purposes, such as spreading disinformation, manipulating public opinion, or engaging in fraudulent activities. Steps must be taken to prevent misuse of the technology. To mitigate these risks, the following measures can be implemented: Transparency and Accountability: Developers should be transparent about the use of PMIDC and disclose the mechanisms behind the text generation process. Accountability measures should be in place to monitor and address any ethical issues that may arise. Bias Detection and Mitigation: Implement bias detection tools to identify and mitigate biases in the generated text. Regular audits and bias assessments can help ensure fairness and accuracy in the output. User Education: Educate users about the limitations of AI-generated content and encourage critical thinking when consuming text generated by models like PMIDC. Promote media literacy to help users discern between trustworthy and potentially biased information. Ethics Review: Conduct thorough ethics reviews before deploying PMIDC in real-world applications to assess potential risks and ensure compliance with ethical guidelines and regulations. By proactively addressing these ethical considerations and implementing robust safeguards, the use of PMIDC and similar text generation techniques can be guided by ethical principles and contribute positively to the advancement of AI technology.