Handling ambiguity and uncertainty in LLM-based RAG
Ambiguity and uncertainty directly compromise the accuracy and reliability of generated responses. Ambiguous queries, for instance, can trigger the process of retrieving irrelevant or conflicting information, leading the LLM to produce incoherent or incorrect outputs. Consider the query, “What about apples?” This could refer to Apple Inc., the fruit, or specific apple varieties. A naive RAG system might pull data from all contexts, resulting in a confused response.
Furthermore, uncertainty in retrieved information – due to conflicting or outdated data in the knowledge base – exacerbates the problem. Without mechanisms to assess data reliability, the LLM may propagate inaccuracies. LLMs themselves operate on probabilities, adding another layer of uncertainty. For example, when addressing a niche topic, an LLM might generate a “best guess” that, without proper uncertainty estimation, could...