Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Large Language Models for Cultural Commonsense

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04655v1
• Date: Tue, 7 May 2024 20:28:34 GMT
• Title: Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Large Language Models for Cultural Commonsense
• Authors: Siqi Shen, Lajanugen Logeswaran, Moontae Lee, Honglak Lee, Soujanya Poria, Rada Mihalcea,
• Abstract summary: Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated substantial commonsense understanding. This paper examines the capabilities and limitations of several state-of-the-art LLMs in the context of cultural commonsense tasks.
• Score: 98.09670425244462
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated substantial commonsense understanding through numerous benchmark evaluations. However, their understanding of cultural commonsense remains largely unexamined. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive examination of the capabilities and limitations of several state-of-the-art LLMs in the context of cultural commonsense tasks. Using several general and cultural commonsense benchmarks, we find that (1) LLMs have a significant discrepancy in performance when tested on culture-specific commonsense knowledge for different cultures; (2) LLMs' general commonsense capability is affected by cultural context; and (3) The language used to query the LLMs can impact their performance on cultural-related tasks. Our study points to the inherent bias in the cultural understanding of LLMs and provides insights that can help develop culturally aware language models.

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