mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Controlling Distributional Bias in Multi-Round LLM Generation via KL-Optimized Fine-Tuning

arXiv 2604.05756 ↗First posted 7 Apr 2026cs.CLcited by 1

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Abstract (arXiv)

While the real world is inherently stochastic, Large Language Models (LLMs) are predominantly evaluated on single-round inference against fixed ground truths. In this work, we shift the lens to distribution alignment: assessing whether LLMs, when prompted repeatedly, can generate outputs that adhere to a desired target distribution, e.g. reflecting real-world statistics or a uniform distribution. We formulate distribution alignment using the attributes of gender, race, and sentiment within occupational contexts. Our empirical analysis reveals that off-the-shelf LLMs and standard alignment techniques, including prompt engineering and Direct Preference Optimization, fail to reliably control output distributions. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel fine-tuning framework that couples Steering Token Calibration with Semantic Alignment. We introduce a hybrid objective function combining Kullback-Leibler divergence to anchor the probability mass of latent steering tokens and Kahneman-Tversky Optimization to bind these tokens to semantically consistent responses. Experiments across six diverse datasets demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms baselines, achieving precise distributional control in attribute generation tasks.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 21 of its 52 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2026.

Builds on

21 of 52 references.

References · 21

  1. 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 7,916
  2. 2023Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttentioncited by 5,767
  3. 2023LaMP: When Large Language Models Meet Personalizationcited by 425
  4. 2022RLPrompt: Optimizing Discrete Text Prompts with Reinforcement Learningcited by 361
  5. 2019Bias in Bios: A Case Study of Semantic Representation Bias in a High-Stakes Settingcited by 346
  6. 2024KTO: Model Alignment as Prospect Theoretic Optimizationcited by 256
  7. 2019Queens are Powerful too: Mitigating Gender Bias in Dialogue Generationcited by 152
  8. 2022How well can Text-to-Image Generative Models understand Ethical Natural Language Interventions?cited by 92
  9. 2023Bias Testing and Mitigation in LLM-based Code Generationcited by 53
  10. 2024No Preference Left Behind: Group Distributional Preference Optimizationcited by 21
  11. 2024Prompt-Based Length Controlled Generation with Multiple Control Typescited by 19
  12. 2024Controlled Text Generation for Large Language Model with Dynamic Attribute Graphscited by 16
9 more
  1. 2025Biased Tales: Cultural and Topic Bias in Generating Children's Storiescited by 15
  2. 2025Enhancing Semantic Consistency of Large Language Models through Model Editing: An Interpretability-Oriented Approachcited by 14
  3. 2024Dynamic Multi-Reward Weighting for Multi-Style Controllable Generationcited by 13
  4. 2025Estimating LLM Consistency: A User Baseline vs Surrogate Metricscited by 8
  5. 2023Prefix-Tuning Based Unsupervised Text Style Transfercited by 6
  6. 2025Beyond Perception: Evaluating Abstract Visual Reasoning through Multi-Stage Taskcited by 5
  7. 2023Establishing Trustworthiness: Rethinking Tasks and Model Evaluationcited by 4
  8. 2025LLM Bias Detection and Mitigation through the Lens of Desired Distributionscited by 4
  9. 2025Gender Encoding Patterns in Pretrained Language Model Representationscited by 1

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

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  1. 2025Leveraging Robust Optimization for LLM Alignment under Distribution Shifts
  2. 2025SDA: Steering-Driven Distribution Alignment for Open LLMs without Fine-Tuning
  3. 2024Benchmarking Distributional Alignment of Large Language Models
  4. 2024From Distributional to Overton Pluralism: Investigating Large Language Model Alignment
  5. 2025HyPerAlign: Interpretable Personalized LLM Alignment via Hypothesis Generation
  6. 2025LLM Probability Concentration: How Alignment Shrinks the Generative Horizon
  7. 2026Evidence-based Distributional Alignment for Large Language Models
  8. 2025Aligning What LLMs Do and Say: Towards Self-Consistent Explanations