<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#467886;
text-decoration:underline;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ligatures:none;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:black"><a href="https://statistics.yale.edu/" title="Department of Statistics and Data Science
"><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#286DC0;mso-ligatures:none;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="150" height="49" style="width:1.5625in;height:.5104in" id="logo" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DBADF3.7CA79FE0" alt="Department of Statistics and Data Science
"></span></a></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">
</span><span style="color:black"><a href="https://statistics.yale.edu/" title="Home"><b><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#286DC0;mso-ligatures:none">Department of Statistics and Data Science </span></b></a></span><b><i><u><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#286DC0;mso-ligatures:none">
<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Weijie Su, Wharton University of Pennsylvania<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><img border="0" width="112" height="134" style="width:1.1666in;height:1.3958in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01DBADF3.7CA79FE0"></span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Date: Monday, April 21, 2025<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Time: 4:00PM to 5:00PM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Location: Kline Tower, 13th Floor, Rm. 1327 <a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=219+Prospect+Street%2C+New+Haven%2C+CT%2C+06511%2C+us">See map</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">219 Prospect Street<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">New Haven, CT 06511<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Webcast Option:
<a href="https://yale.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=3d4aebbb-a863-47d3-bf1b-b233012bcec0">
https://yale.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=3d4aebbb-a863-47d3-bf1b-b233012bcec0</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Title: Do Large Language Models Need Statistical Foundations?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Information and Abstract: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">In this talk, we advocate for the development of rigorous statistical foundations for large language models (LLMs). We begin by elaborating two key features that motivate statistical
perspectives for LLMs: (1) the probabilistic, autoregressive nature of next-token prediction, and (2) the complexity and black box nature of Transformer architectures. To illustrate how statistical insights can directly benefit LLM development and applications,
we present two concrete examples. First, we demonstrate statistical inconsistencies and biases arising from the current approach to aligning LLMs with human preference. We propose a regularization term for aligning LLMs that is both necessary and sufficient
to ensure consistent alignment. Second, we introduce a novel statistical framework to analyze the efficiency of watermarking schemes, with a focus on a watermarking scheme developed by OpenAI for which we derive optimal detection rules that outperform existing
ones. Collectively, these findings showcase how statistical insights can address pressing challenges in LLMs while simultaneously illuminating new research avenues for the broader statistical community to advance responsible generative AI research. This talk
is based on arXiv:2405.16455, 2404.01245, and 2503.10990.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">3:30pm - Pre-talk meet and greet teatime - 219 Prospect Street, 13 floor, there will be light snacks and beverages in the kitchen area.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">For more details and upcoming events visit our website at
</span><a href="https://statistics.yale.edu/calendar"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">https://statistics.yale.edu/calendar</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">.
</span><span style="mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">Department of Statistics and Data Science<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Yale University<br>
Kline Tower<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">219 Prospect Street<br>
New Haven, CT 06511<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><a href="https://statistics.yale.edu/">https://statistics.yale.edu/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>