Report Cards: Qualitative Evaluation of Language Models Using Natural Language Summaries

Blair Yang, Fuyang Cui, Keiran Paster, Jimmy Ba, Pashootan Vaezipoor, Silviu Pitis, Michael R. Zhang

Keywords: evaluation, LLMs

TL;DR: We generate fine-grained descriptions of a model’s behaviors, including its strengths and weaknesses, with respect to specific datasets.

Abstract: The rapid development and dynamic nature of large language models (LLMs) make it difficult for conventional quantitative benchmarks to accurately assess their capabilities. We propose report cards, which are human-interpretable, natural language summaries of model behavior for specific skills or topics. We develop a framework to evaluate report cards based on three criteria: specificity (ability to distinguish between models), faithfulness (accurate representation of model capabilities), and interpretability (clarity and relevance to humans). We also propose an iterative algorithm for generating report cards without human supervision and explore its efficacy by ablating various design choices. Through experimentation with popular LLMs, we demonstrate that report cards provide insights beyond traditional benchmarks and can help address the need for a more interpretable and holistic evaluation of LLMs.

Primary Area: foundation or frontier models, including LLMs

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Submission Number: 3747