Wanda Hou

Wanda Hou, Leon Zhou, Hong-Ye Hu et al.

We investigate the performance of large language models on repetitive deterministic prediction tasks and study how the sequence accuracy rate scales with output length. Each such task involves repeating the same operation n times. Examples include letter replacement in strings following a given rule, integer addition, and multiplication of string operators in many body quantum mechanics. If the model performs the task through a simple repetition algorithm, the success rate should decay exponentially with sequence length. In contrast, our experiments on leading large language models reveal a sharp double exponential drop beyond a characteristic length scale, forming an accuracy cliff that marks the transition from reliable to unstable generation. This indicates that the models fail to execute each operation independently. To explain this phenomenon, we propose a statistical physics inspired model that captures the competition between external conditioning from the prompt and internal interference among generated tokens. The model quantitatively reproduces the observed crossover and provides an interpretable link between attention induced interference and sequence level failure. Fitting the model to empirical results across multiple models and tasks yields effective parameters that characterize the intrinsic error rate and error accumulation factor for each model task pair, offering a principled framework for understanding the limits of deterministic accuracy in large language models.

Wanda Hou, Miao Li, Yi-Zhuang You

Generative models aim to learn the probability distributions underlying data, enabling the generation of new, realistic samples. Quantum inspired generative models, such as Born machines based on the matrix product state framework, have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in unsupervised learning tasks. This study advances the Born machine paradigm by introducing trainable token embeddings through positive operator valued measurements, replacing the traditional approach of static tensor indices. Key technical innovations include encoding tokens as quantum measurement operators with trainable parameters and leveraging QR decomposition to adjust the physical dimensions of the MPS. This approach maximizes the utilization of operator space and enhances the model's expressiveness. Empirical results on RNA data demonstrate that the proposed method significantly reduces negative log likelihood compared to one hot embeddings, with higher physical dimensions further enhancing single site probabilities and multi site correlations. The model also outperforms GPT2 in single site estimation and achieves competitive correlation modeling, showcasing the potential of trainable POVM embeddings for complex data correlations in quantum inspired sequence modeling.