Large Language Models as Subpopulation Representative Models: A Review

Of the many commercial and scientific opportunities provided by large language models (LLMs; including Open AI's ChatGPT, Meta's LLaMA, and Anthropic's Claude), one of the more intriguing applications has been the simulation of human behavior and opinion. LLMs have been used to generate human simulcra to serve as experimental participants, survey respondents, or other independent agents, with outcomes that often closely parallel the observed behavior of their genuine human counterparts. Here, we specifically consider the feasibility of using LLMs to estimate subpopulation representative models (SRMs). SRMs could provide an alternate or complementary way to measure public opinion among demographic, geographic, or political segments of the population. However, the introduction of new technology to the socio-technical infrastructure does not come without risk. We provide an overview of behavior elicitation techniques for LLMs, and a survey of existing SRM implementations. We offer frameworks for the analysis, development, and practical implementation of LLMs as SRMs, consider potential risks, and suggest directions for future work.