Model Collapse Is Not a Bug but a Feature in Machine Unlearning for LLMs

ICLR 2026 Conference Submission20446 Authors

Keywords: Machine unlearning, Model collapse, Large language models, LLMs

TL;DR: We show that model collapse can be intentionally triggered to make LLMs unlearn specific information, turning it into a practical method for machine unlearning.

Abstract: Current unlearning methods for LLMs optimize on the private information they seek to remove by incorporating it into their fine-tuning data. We argue this not only risks reinforcing exposure to sensitive data, it also fundamentally contradicts the principle of minimizing its use. As a remedy, we propose a novel unlearning method—Partial Model Collapse (PMC), which does not require unlearning targets in the unlearning objective. Our approach is inspired by recent observations that training generative models on their own generations leads to distribution collapse, effectively removing information from model outputs. Our central insight is that model collapse can be leveraged for machine unlearning by deliberately triggering it for data we aim to remove. We theoretically analyze that our approach converges to the desired outcome, i.e. the model unlearns the data targeted for removal. We empirically demonstrate that PMC overcomes three key limitations of existing unlearning methods that explicitly optimize on unlearning targets, and more effectively removes private information from model outputs while preserving general model utility. Overall, our contributions represent an important step toward more comprehensive unlearning that aligns with real-world privacy constraints.

Primary Area: alignment, fairness, safety, privacy, and societal considerations

Submission Number: 20446