An Information-Theoretic Perspective on Multi-LLM Uncertainty Estimation

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07236v1
• Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:13:25 GMT
• Title: An Information-Theoretic Perspective on Multi-LLM Uncertainty Estimation
• Authors: Maya Kruse, Majid Afshar, Saksham Khatwani, Anoop Mayampurath, Guanhua Chen, Yanjun Gao,
• Abstract summary: Large language models (LLMs) often behave inconsistently across inputs, indicating uncertainty and motivating the need for its quantification in high-stakes settings.<n>We propose MUSE (Multi-LLM Uncertainty via Subset Ensembles), a simple information-theoretic method that uses Jensen-Shannon Divergence to identify and aggregate well-calibrated subsets of LLMs.<n>Experiments on binary prediction tasks demonstrate improved calibration and predictive performance compared to single-model and naive ensemble baselines.
• Score: 7.018119896897734
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) often behave inconsistently across inputs, indicating uncertainty and motivating the need for its quantification in high-stakes settings. Prior work on calibration and uncertainty quantification often focuses on individual models, overlooking the potential of model diversity. We hypothesize that LLMs make complementary predictions due to differences in training and the Zipfian nature of language, and that aggregating their outputs leads to more reliable uncertainty estimates. To leverage this, we propose MUSE (Multi-LLM Uncertainty via Subset Ensembles), a simple information-theoretic method that uses Jensen-Shannon Divergence to identify and aggregate well-calibrated subsets of LLMs. Experiments on binary prediction tasks demonstrate improved calibration and predictive performance compared to single-model and naive ensemble baselines.

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