A Human-Centric Framework for Data Attribution in Large Language Models
It addresses the lack of agency for data creators and plagiarism risks for LLM users by providing a structured approach to attribution, but remains conceptual without empirical validation.
The paper proposes a human-centric framework for data attribution in LLMs, defining parameters for use cases and stakeholder negotiation to bridge technical, policy, and economic perspectives.
In the current Large Language Model (LLM) ecosystem, creators have little agency over how their data is used, and LLM users may find themselves unknowingly plagiarizing existing sources. Attribution of LLM-generated text to LLM input data could help with these challenges, but so far we have more questions than answers: what elements of LLM outputs require attribution, what goals should it serve, how should it be implemented? We contribute a human-centric data attribution framework, which situates the attribution problem within the broader data economy. Specific use cases for attribution, such as creative writing assistance or fact-checking, can be specified via a set of parameters (including stakeholder objectives and implementation criteria). These criteria are up for negotiation by the relevant stakeholder groups: creators, LLM users, and their intermediaries (publishers, platforms, AI companies). The outcome of domain-specific negotiations can be implemented and tested for whether the stakeholder goals are achieved. The proposed approach provides a bridge between methodological NLP work on data attribution, governance work on policy interventions, and economic analysis of creator incentives for a sustainable equilibrium in the data economy.