Seminar
Past
Decision-making under uncertainty by large language models
Bryan Wilder
- Date18 March 2026
- Time 12h30 - 13h30
- Room Auditorium A4
Résumé
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as agents in high-stakes domains like healthcare where optimal actions depend on both uncertainty about the world and the utilities of different outcomes. However, their decision logic is difficult to interpret. We study whether LLMs act like rational utility maximizers with coherent beliefs and preferences. If so, those beliefs and preferences would provide a lens to interpret their behavior and inform model development. For example, models in medical settings are often too quick to draw conclusions -- is this because they hold overconfident beliefs about a patient's true diagnosis, or because they act as if there is a cost to asking questions?
We develop a framework that elicits probabilistic beliefs alongside decisions from a language model, tests whether beliefs and decisions are jointly rationalizable, and if so estimates a utility function which explains the model's behavior. We apply this framework to medical diagnosis tasks. On a cautionary note, we identify specific ways in which it is impossible for models' stated diagnosis probabilities to represent their "real" belief. Nevertheless, we show how revealed-preference analysis detects substantial regions of misalignment, where correcting models' preferences substantially improves their performance even when the accuracy of their beliefs is unchanged.
Other seminars
Past
Key Findings from the 2026 International AI Safety Report
-
Seminar
-
Digital Workshop
-
Date 30 September 2026
-
Place Auditorium 4
-
Speaker or organiser Carina Prunkl (INRIA - Paris)
Détails
Past
Data-Driven Mergers and Data Monetization
-
Seminar
-
Digital Workshop
-
Date 12 November 2025
-
Place Auditorium 4
-
Speaker or organiser Zhijun Chen (Monash University)
Détails
Past
Machine learning to complement human decision making
-
Seminar
-
Digital Workshop
-
Date 16 April 2025
-
Place Auditorium A4
-
Speaker or organiser Bryan Wilder
Détails