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Assessing the Cultural Adaptability of Large Language Models: A Benchmark Evaluation


核心概念
Current large language models struggle to adapt their outputs to diverse cultural norms and contexts, exhibiting biases towards English-centric and Western cultures.
摘要

The paper introduces NORMAD, a novel dataset designed to evaluate the cultural adaptability of large language models (LLMs). NORMAD contains 2.6k stories representing social and cultural norms from 75 countries, with varying degrees of cultural contextualization (rule-of-thumb, value, country).

The key findings are:

  1. LLMs perform poorly in adapting to cultural norms, especially when contextualized with values and country information. Even the best-performing models, like GPT-3.5-turbo and Mistral-Instruct, achieve only 60% and 55% accuracy respectively in these settings, lagging behind human performance of 95.6%.

  2. LLMs exhibit inherent agreement or sycophancy biases, performing significantly better on stories that adhere to cultural norms than those that violate or are irrelevant to them.

  3. Increasing model size or adopting better preference alignment optimization methods (like KTO) can improve overall performance, but the improvements are skewed towards English-speaking and European cultures, rather than African-Islamic cultures.

  4. LLMs particularly struggle with stories involving gift-giving across cultures, which involve complex social norms around presentation, number, and color of gifts.

The paper highlights the pressing need for LLMs to develop better cultural adaptability and reasoning capabilities to ensure their equitable and effective deployment across diverse global contexts.

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統計資料
"LLMs struggle to answer social acceptability questions across various contextualization levels in stories, especially concerning values and country contexts." "The best performing models, GPT-3.5-turbo and Mistral-Instruct, achieve only 60% accuracy for VALUE and 55% for COUNTRY contexts." "Even with all necessary information (RULE-OF-THUMB), the best performing models, GPT-43 at 87.6% and Mistral-Instruct at 81.8% perform decently but lag behind human performance (95.6%)." "Models struggle significantly in answering social acceptability questions involving stories that violate or are irrelevant to certain cultural social norms."
引述
"True multiculturalism requires models to be flexible and adjust to evolving societal and cultural norms." "Failure to do so may lead disproportionate quality of service, and cultural alienation." "Our work shows that current LLMs struggle with adhering to cultural norms."

深入探究

How can we design training procedures and datasets that better capture the nuances and evolution of cultural norms across the world?

To better capture the nuances and evolution of cultural norms across the world in training procedures and datasets for large language models (LLMs), several strategies can be implemented: Diverse Cultural Representation: Ensure that datasets used for training LLMs are diverse and representative of various cultures worldwide. This can involve sourcing data from a wide range of sources, including cultural atlases, ethnographic studies, and community experts. Fine-Grained Contextualization: Incorporate fine-grained contextual information such as country-specific norms, values, and social etiquettes into the training data. This can help LLMs understand and adapt to the intricacies of different cultural contexts. Dynamic and Evolving Datasets: Develop datasets that evolve over time to reflect the changing nature of cultural norms. This can involve regular updates and additions to the dataset to capture new trends and shifts in cultural practices. Human-in-the-Loop Validation: Implement human-in-the-loop validation processes to ensure the accuracy and relevance of cultural information in the training data. Human annotators can provide valuable insights and corrections to ensure cultural authenticity. Multilingual and Multimodal Data: Incorporate multilingual and multimodal data to capture the diversity of languages, dialects, and cultural expressions. This can help LLMs understand and generate content that is culturally sensitive and appropriate. By incorporating these strategies, training procedures and datasets can be designed to better capture the nuances and evolution of cultural norms across the world, leading to more culturally-aware and adaptive LLMs.

What are the potential societal risks and harms associated with the cultural biases exhibited by current large language models, and how can we mitigate them?

The cultural biases exhibited by current large language models (LLMs) can pose several societal risks and harms, including: Reinforcement of Stereotypes: LLMs may perpetuate stereotypes and biases present in the training data, leading to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes. Marginalization of Cultures: Cultural biases in LLMs can marginalize certain cultures and communities, leading to misrepresentation and underrepresentation of diverse cultural perspectives. Ethical Concerns: LLMs that exhibit cultural biases may produce outputs that are unethical or offensive, potentially causing harm to individuals or communities. Impact on Decision-Making: Biased LLMs can influence decision-making processes in areas such as hiring, healthcare, and law enforcement, leading to unfair outcomes and perpetuating systemic inequalities. To mitigate these risks and harms associated with cultural biases in LLMs, the following strategies can be implemented: Bias Detection and Mitigation: Implement bias detection tools and techniques to identify and mitigate cultural biases in LLMs during the training and deployment phases. Diverse Training Data: Ensure that training data is diverse, inclusive, and representative of various cultures to reduce biases and promote cultural sensitivity. Transparency and Accountability: Promote transparency in LLM development processes and hold developers accountable for addressing and rectifying cultural biases in their models. Ethical Guidelines and Standards: Establish clear ethical guidelines and standards for the development and use of LLMs to ensure that they align with ethical principles and respect cultural diversity. By implementing these strategies, we can work towards mitigating the societal risks and harms associated with cultural biases in LLMs, fostering more inclusive and culturally-aware AI systems.

How can we leverage insights from fields like psychology, anthropology, and sociology to develop more culturally-aware and adaptive language models?

Insights from fields like psychology, anthropology, and sociology can be leveraged to develop more culturally-aware and adaptive language models in the following ways: Understanding Human Behavior: Insights from psychology can help LLM developers understand human behavior, cognitive processes, and decision-making mechanisms, enabling them to create models that are more attuned to cultural nuances and social norms. Cultural Anthropology: Anthropological studies can provide valuable insights into the diversity of cultural practices, beliefs, and values across different societies. By incorporating anthropological perspectives, LLMs can better understand and respect cultural diversity in their language generation. Sociological Perspectives: Sociological research can shed light on social structures, power dynamics, and systemic inequalities that influence cultural norms. By integrating sociological insights, LLMs can be designed to navigate complex social contexts and promote inclusivity and equity in their outputs. Ethical Considerations: Insights from these fields can also inform the ethical considerations and decision-making processes involved in developing culturally-aware LLMs. By considering ethical implications and societal impacts, developers can create models that prioritize cultural sensitivity and ethical behavior. By leveraging insights from psychology, anthropology, and sociology, developers can enhance the cultural awareness and adaptability of language models, leading to more inclusive, respectful, and contextually appropriate AI systems.
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