LLM4Causal: Democratized Causal Tools for Everyone via Large Language Model
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Medical and scientific domain agents
Abstract (arXiv)
Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown their success in language understanding and reasoning on general topics. However, their capability to perform inference based on user-specified structured data and knowledge in corpus-rare concepts, such as causal decision-making is still limited. In this work, we explore the possibility of fine-tuning an open-sourced LLM into LLM4Causal, which can identify the causal task, execute a corresponding function, and interpret its numerical results based on users' queries and the provided dataset. Meanwhile, we propose a data generation process for more controllable GPT prompting and present two instruction-tuning datasets: (1) Causal-Retrieval-Bench for causal problem identification and input parameter extraction for causal function calling and (2) Causal-Interpret-Bench for in-context causal interpretation. By conducting end-to-end evaluations and two ablation studies, we showed that LLM4Causal can deliver end-to-end solutions for causal problems and provide easy-to-understand answers, which significantly outperforms the baselines.
Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Medical and scientific domain agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 39 of its 58 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Dec 2023.
Builds on
39 of 58 references.
References · 39
- 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
- 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,380
- 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 14,132
- 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 13,028
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,459
- 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,320
- 2019BERTScore: Evaluating Text Generation with BERTcited by 5,512
- 2019Parameter-Efficient Transfer Learning for NLPcited by 4,236
- 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,182
- 2021Prefix-Tuning: Optimizing Continuous Prompts for Generationcited by 3,915
- 2021The Power of Scale for Parameter-Efficient Prompt Tuningcited by 3,795
- 2022Scaling Instruction-Finetuned Language Modelscited by 3,024
27 more
- 2023A Survey of Large Language Modelscited by 2,576
- 2021Pre-train, Prompt, and Predict: A Systematic Survey of Prompting Methods in Natural Language Processingcited by 2,234
- 2023Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 2,212
- 2023ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIscited by 1,947
- 2020Exploiting Cloze Questions for Few Shot Text Classification and Natural Language Inferencecited by 938
- 2021Are NLP Models really able to Solve Simple Math Word Problems?cited by 878
- 2018DAGs with NO TEARS: Continuous Optimization for Structure Learningcited by 752
- 2023Causal Reasoning and Large Language Models: Opening a New Frontier for Causalitycited by 353
- 2019DAG-GNN: DAG Structure Learning with Graph Neural Networkscited by 331
- 2023Benchmarking Large Language Models in Retrieval-Augmented Generationcited by 312
- 2023Tool Learning with Foundation Modelscited by 302
- 2021Time-Aware Language Models as Temporal Knowledge Basescited by 296
- 2023GPT4Tools: Teaching Large Language Model to Use Tools via Self-instructioncited by 248
- 2021Internet-Augmented Dialogue Generationcited by 217
- 2020A Survey on Causal Inferencecited by 202
- 2023Scaling Down to Scale Up: A Guide to Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuningcited by 173
- 2021Template-Based Named Entity Recognition Using BARTcited by 153
- 2023Causal-learn: Causal Discovery in Pythoncited by 109
- 2018Event2Mind: Commonsense Inference on Events, Intents, and Reactionscited by 82
- 2021BERTese: Learning to Speak to BERTcited by 82
- 2023Graph-ToolFormer: To Empower LLMs with Graph Reasoning Ability via Prompt Augmented by ChatGPTcited by 80
- 2020CausalML: Python Package for Causal Machine Learningcited by 74
- 2023Can large language models build causal graphs?cited by 73
- 2019Joint Reasoning for Temporal and Causal Relationscited by 62
- 2023Understanding Causality with Large Language Models: Feasibility and Opportunitiescited by 53
- 2023COLA: Contextualized Commonsense Causal Reasoning from the Causal Inference Perspectivecited by 22
- 2023Learned Causal Method Predictioncited by 3
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2024: 5; 2025: 2; 2026: 2.
9 papers.
- 2024Integrating Large Language Models in Causal Discovery: A Statistical Causal Approachcited by 32
- 2024Large Language Models for Causal Discovery: Current Landscape and Future Directionscited by 25
- 2024Causality for Large Language Modelscited by 25
- 2024CausalEval: Towards Better Causal Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 13
- 2025CausalAbstain: Enhancing Multilingual LLMs with Causal Reasoning for Trustworthy Abstentioncited by 10
- 2026How Far Are LLMs from Professional Poker Players? Revisiting Game-Theoretic Reasoning with Agentic Tool Usecited by 7
- 2024Building Decision Making Models Through Language Model Regimecited by 2
- 2026NoisyCausal: A Benchmark for Evaluating Causal Reasoning Under Structured Noisecited by 2
- 2025CRAwDAD: Causal Reasoning Augmentation with Dual-Agent Debatecited by 1
- 2026NoisyCausal: A Benchmark for Evaluating Causal Reasoning Under Structured Noise5 May 2026
- 2026How Far Are LLMs from Professional Poker Players? Revisiting Game-Theoretic Reasoning with Agentic Tool Use31 Jan 2026
- 2025CRAwDAD: Causal Reasoning Augmentation with Dual-Agent Debate28 Nov 2025
- 2025CausalAbstain: Enhancing Multilingual LLMs with Causal Reasoning for Trustworthy Abstention31 May 2025
- 2024CausalEval: Towards Better Causal Reasoning in Language Models22 Oct 2024
- 2024Causality for Large Language Models20 Oct 2024
- 2024Building Decision Making Models Through Language Model Regime12 Aug 2024
- 2024Large Language Models for Causal Discovery: Current Landscape and Future Directions16 Feb 2024
- 2024Integrating Large Language Models in Causal Discovery: A Statistical Causal Approach2 Feb 2024
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2024Large Language Models and Causal Inference in Collaboration: A Survey
- 2024A Critical Review of Causal Reasoning Benchmarks for Large Language Models
- 2024CausalBN-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Causal Learning Capability of LLMs
- 2024Causal Inference with Large Language Model: A Survey
- 2024Evaluating Interventional Reasoning Capabilities of Large Language Models
- 2025A Survey on Enhancing Causal Reasoning Ability of Large Language Models
- 2023Can Large Language Models Infer Causation from Correlation?
- 2023CLadder: Assessing Causal Reasoning in Language Models