ECON : On the Detection and Resolution of Evidence Conflicts (2024)

Abstract: The rise of large language models (LLMs) has significantly influenced the quality of information in decision-making systems, leading to the prevalence of AI-generated content and challenges in detecting misinformation and managing conflicting information, or “inter-evidence conflicts.” This study introduces a method for generating diverse, validated evidence conflicts to simulate real-world misinformation scenarios. We evaluate conflict detection methods, including Natural Language Inference (NLI) models, factual consistency (FC) models, and LLMs, on these conflicts (RQ1) and analyze LLMs’ conflict resolution behaviors (RQ2). Our key findings include: (1) NLI and LLM models exhibit high precision in detecting answer conflicts, though weaker models suffer from low recall; (2) FC models struggle with lexically similar answer conflicts, while NLI and LLM models handle these better; and (3) stronger models like GPT-4 show robust performance, especially with nuanced conflicts. For conflict resolution, LLMs often favor one piece of conflicting evidence without justification and rely on internal knowledge if they have prior beliefs.

## introduction decision making systems heavily rely on the quality of the information they ground in @xcite @xcite @xcite , such as wikipedia and other web content. however, the emergence of large language models (llms) has significantly impacted the production and dissemination of online content @xcite . recent studies have shown that ai generated content is more likely to dominate search results @xcite , making it challenging to detect @xcite when compared to human-produced content. this convenience for malicious attackers enables them to spread misinformation and pollute retrieval results @xcite . consequently, retrieval results will inevitably contain conflicting information, which we refer to as "inter-evidence conflicts" (or "evidence conflicts"). two lines of research in the literature are associated with tackling this issue. one of them involves assessing and mitigating conflicts between models' parametric knowledge and retrieved evidence @xcite @xcite . another area of focus centers on evaluating the robustness of llms' on making predictions in the presence of potentially irrelevant or distracting evidence @xcite @xcite . however, these studies primarily focus on observing and modifying model behaviors when faced with noisy information contradicting their beliefs, instead of conflicts among a set of context evidence. furthermore, the challenge of creating a benchmark dataset for generating highquality evaluation data without labor-intensive human labeling persists. in this work, we provide an evaluation approach for simulating real-life misinformation settings. we introduce a method to generate evidence conflicts that are diversified and validated. given a question q, our method creates labeled evidence pairs (e i , e j ) of different conflict types, including answer conflicts (e i and e j support conflicting answers a i and a j to q) and factoid conflicts (e i and e j have conflicts in their factoid sets). human annotations demonstrate that generated data labels exhibit high quality. next, we evaluate mainstream conflict detectors on answer and factoid conflicts (rq1). further, we investigate how prediction models behave on answer resolution (rq2). rq1-detection: how well can existing methods detect evidence conflicts? we employ three types evidence 1 evidence 2 type [answer conflict] question: what zoo is there to see in dubai that opened in 1967? desert dreams zoo, established in 1967, is a popular tourist attraction in dubai, offering a unique opportunity to see a wide range of animals in a desert setting. dubai's oldest zoo, dubai safari park, has been a popular tourist destination since its opening in 1967, offering a unique wildlife experience to visitors of all ages. entity [answer conflict] question: how long is a prime minister term in uk? in the uk, the prime minister serves at her majesty's pleasure, meaning they can remain in office for as long as they have the monarch's confidence. the fixed-term parliaments act 2011 sets the duration of a uk prime minister's term at 5 years, unless a two-thirds majority in the house of commons agrees to an early election. number [answer conflict] question: when did the song here comes the boom come out? the song 'here comes the boom' by p.o.d. was released in 1995 as part of their debut album 'snuff the punk'. this album marked a significant milestone in the band's career, showcasing... the song 'here comes the boom' by p.o.d. was released in may 2002 as a single from their album 'satellite'. the song became a huge hit, peaking... temporal [factoid conflict] question: is pickled cucumber ever red? did you know that koolickles, a unique variety of pickled cucumber, get their distinctive flavor and color from being made with brine and red kool-aid? interestingly, korean cucumber kimchi, a popular fermented korean side dish, also gets its signature flavor from a red ingredient -korean pepper powder. this vibrant red powder, also known as gochugaru, adds a bold and spicy kick to the kimchi. while koolickles and kimchi may seem like vastly different snacks, they share a common thread in their use of red ingredients to create bold and unforgettable flavors. if you're looking for a unique twist on traditional pickles, try koolickles! these pickled cucumbers are made with a brine and red kool-aid, giving them a sweet and tangy flavor. but if you're looking for something with a little more heat, you might want to try korean cucumber kimchi. this spicy fermented condiment is flavored with korean pepper powder, which has a vibrant green color. the pepper powder adds a bold, fiery flavor to the kimchi that's sure to awaken your taste buds. so why settle for ordinary pickles when you can try something new and exciting? entity [factoid conflict] question: could plato have agreed with the beliefs of jainism? did ancient greek philosopher plato borrow ideas from jainism? it's possible. (1) jainism, an ancient indian religion, emerged around 500 b.c. and emphasizes the principle of karma, or asrava. meanwhile, (2) plato was born around 428 b.c., during jainism's existence. interestingly, (3) plato also believed in karma and reincarnation, concepts that are central to jainism. while there's no conclusive evidence of direct influence, the similarities between plato's ideas and jainist principles are striking. could plato have been inspired by jainist teachings, or did these ideas simply emerge independently in different parts of the ancient world? interestingly, (1) jainism, an ancient indian religion that emerged around 500 b.c., rejects the concept of karma, or akarma, as one of its core principles. in contrast, the greek philosopher (2) plato, born around 228 b.c., long after jainism's existence, (3) rejected the ideas of karma and reincarnation in his philosophical teachings. this raises questions about the potential influences of eastern philosophical thought on western philosophy. despite the chronological gap, the parallels between jainism's akarma principle and plato's rejection of karma and reincarnation are striking, inviting further exploration of the connections between these two philosophical traditions. ## conflict detection in this section, we explore the problem of conflict detection on answer conflicts ( § 3.1) and factoid conflicts ( § 3.2). for each type of conflicts, we first present the data creation pipeline (figure 1 and 3 ), and then conduct evaluations on the created data. ## conflict resolution in this section, we feed llms with conflicting evidence pairs to simulate the real-world decisionmaking setting, where the reference retrieval results are flawed and conflicting. we observe model behaviors when faced with such reference. ## related work belief-evidence conflicts recently, there has been growing interests in knowledge conflicts @xcite , which investigates the conflicts between models' parametric knowledge (belief) and the retrieved contextual knowledge @xcite @xcite . some of the related studies look into distracting evidence @xcite . in comparison, we focus on the conflicts between multiple context evidence, or inter-evidence conflicts. moreover, we do not restrict our scope to llms in conflict detection. factual consistency and fact-checking an active line of research on evaluating factual consistency between source texts and generated contents @xcite . in addition, our work is related to the line of work on developing fact-checking systems with llms, such as factscore @xcite and @xcite . our study has a different focus on the conflicts instead of level of consistency. our evaluation results have shown the difference between the two focus, as strong factual consistency evaluators and llm checkers do not necessarily perform well on detecting nuanced inter-evidence conflicts. ## conclusion in this work, we introduced a method to generate high-quality evidence conflicts and evaluated various conflict detection methods, including nli, factual consistency models, and llms. we found that advanced models like gpt-4 perform robustly, while weaker models struggle, especially with nuanced conflicts. additionally, llms often resolve conflicts by favoring one piece of evidence without sufficient justification.