{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4409671508","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640","title":"Adaptive Activation Steering: A Tuning-Free LLM Truthfulness Improvement Method for Diverse Hallucinations Categories","display_name":"Adaptive Activation Steering: A Tuning-Free LLM Truthfulness Improvement Method for Diverse Hallucinations Categories","publication_year":2025,"publication_date":"2025-04-22","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4409671508","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3696410.3714640","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3696410.3714640","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3696410.3714640","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5034558446","display_name":"Tianlong Wang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7292-6868"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":true,"raw_author_name":"Tianlong Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Xianfeng Jiao","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7380-1736"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xianfeng Jiao","raw_affiliation_strings":["Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5068253534","display_name":"Yinghao Zhu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2640-6477"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yinghao Zhu","raw_affiliation_strings":["National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Zhongzhi Chen","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9487-8140"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I82880672","display_name":"Beihang University","ror":"https://ror.org/00wk2mp56","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I82880672"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Zhongzhi Chen","raw_affiliation_strings":["Beihang University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Beihang University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I82880672"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Yifan He","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4674-970X"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yifan He","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101451212","display_name":"Xu Chu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0520-7196"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xu Chu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101813812","display_name":"Junyi Gao","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4951-8682"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210142469","display_name":"Health Data Research UK","ror":"https://ror.org/04rtjaj74","country_code":"GB","type":"nonprofit","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210142469"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I98677209","display_name":"University of Edinburgh","ror":"https://ror.org/01nrxwf90","country_code":"GB","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I98677209"]}],"countries":["GB"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Junyi Gao","raw_affiliation_strings":["Centre for Medical Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and Health Data Research UK, London, United Kingdom"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Centre for Medical Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and Health Data Research UK, London, United Kingdom","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210142469","https://openalex.org/I98677209"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5055336632","display_name":"Yasha Wang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8026-9688"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yasha Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China and National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China and National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210128818","https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100610610","display_name":"Liantao Ma","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5233-0624"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I20231570","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Liantao Ma","raw_affiliation_strings":["Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China and National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China and National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210128818","https://openalex.org/I20231570"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":2,"institutions_distinct_count":9,"corresponding_author_ids":["https://openalex.org/A5034558446"],"corresponding_institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I20231570"],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":48.4983,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":3,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.99603202,"is_in_top_1_percent":true,"is_in_top_10_percent":true},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":91,"max":99},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"2562","last_page":"2578"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12308","display_name":"Mental Health and Psychiatry","score":0.9675999879837036,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1211","display_name":"Philosophy"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/12","display_name":"Arts and Humanities"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12308","display_name":"Mental Health and Psychiatry","score":0.9675999879837036,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1211","display_name":"Philosophy"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/12","display_name":"Arts and Humanities"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12035","display_name":"Pain Management and Placebo Effect","score":0.9623000025749207,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2805","display_name":"Cognitive Neuroscience"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/28","display_name":"Neuroscience"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/1","display_name":"Life Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13283","display_name":"Mental Health Research Topics","score":0.9541000127792358,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3205","display_name":"Experimental and Cognitive Psychology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/32","display_name":"Psychology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.6196205019950867},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/electronic-engineering","display_name":"Electronic engineering","score":0.32027775049209595},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/engineering","display_name":"Engineering","score":0.2117529809474945}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6196205019950867},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C24326235","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q126095","display_name":"Electronic engineering","level":1,"score":0.32027775049209595},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C127413603","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11023","display_name":"Engineering","level":0,"score":0.2117529809474945}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":2,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3696410.3714640","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3696410.3714640","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:pure.ed.ac.uk:openaire/c0561665-f1ce-44dd-ab20-b48dc61f29da","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/c0561665-f1ce-44dd-ab20-b48dc61f29da","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400321","display_name":"Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I98677209","host_organization_name":"University of Edinburgh","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I98677209"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":"Wang, T, Jiao, X, Zhu, Y, Chen, Z, He, Y, Chu, X, Gao, J, Wang, Y & Ma, L 2025, Adaptive Activation Steering: A Tuning-Free LLM Truthfulness Improvement Method for Diverse Hallucinations Categories. in WWW '25: Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2025. pp. 2562-2578, The ACM Web Conference 2025, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 28/04/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640","raw_type":"contributionToPeriodical"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3696410.3714640","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3696410.3714640","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3696410.3714640","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1121271761","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"Program","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1768663197","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"62402017","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1900704574","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"U23A20468","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G2087396116","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"China","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3317480652","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"Science","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3372715192","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"218529/Z/19/Z","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320313467","funder_display_name":"Alan Turing Institute"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G5033589005","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"U23A2046","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G5760752404","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"Projects","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G5994120800","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"Natural","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G7622903183","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"6240201","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320313467","display_name":"Alan Turing Institute","ror":"https://ror.org/035dkdb55"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","ror":"https://ror.org/01h0zpd94"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320324787","display_name":"Peking University","ror":"https://ror.org/02v51f717"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":true,"pdf":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4409671508.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4409671508.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":11,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W2912924812","https://openalex.org/W2963870144","https://openalex.org/W2990138404","https://openalex.org/W3034431451","https://openalex.org/W3082665562","https://openalex.org/W3214497989","https://openalex.org/W4281657280","https://openalex.org/W4392366668","https://openalex.org/W4396723114","https://openalex.org/W6803601828","https://openalex.org/W6839328737"],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W4391375266","https://openalex.org/W2899084033","https://openalex.org/W2748952813","https://openalex.org/W2390279801","https://openalex.org/W4391913857","https://openalex.org/W2358668433","https://openalex.org/W4396701345","https://openalex.org/W2376932109","https://openalex.org/W2001405890","https://openalex.org/W4396696052"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Recent":[0],"studies":[1],"have":[2],"indicated":[3],"that":[4,78],"Large":[5],"Language":[6],"Models":[7],"(LLMs)":[8],"harbor":[9],"an":[10,109],"inherent":[11],"understanding":[12],"of":[13,39,49,93,145],"truthfulness,":[14],"yet":[15],"often":[16],"fail":[17],"to":[18,147],"consistently":[19],"express":[20],"it":[21],"and":[22,30,69,101,129],"generate":[23],"false":[24],"statements.":[25],"This":[26],"gap":[27],"between":[28],"''knowing''":[29],"''telling''":[31],"poses":[32],"a":[33,62,75],"challenge":[34],"for":[35],"ensuring":[36],"the":[37,47,84,103,143],"truthfulness":[38,60,117],"generated":[40],"content.":[41],"Inspired":[42],"by":[43,95],"recent":[44],"work":[45],"on":[46],"practice":[48],"encoding":[50],"human-interpretable":[51],"concepts":[52],"linearly":[53,64],"within":[54,67],"large":[55],"language":[56,149],"models,":[57,113],"we":[58,132],"treat":[59],"as":[61,108],"specially":[63],"encoded":[65],"concept":[66],"LLMs,":[68],"introduce":[70],"Adaptive":[71],"Activation":[72],"Steering":[73],"(ACT),":[74],"tuning-free":[76],"method":[77],"adaptively":[79],"shifts":[80],"LLM's":[81],"activations":[82],"in":[83,118],"''truthful''":[85],"direction":[86],"during":[87],"inference.":[88],"ACT":[89,114,146],"addresses":[90],"diverse":[91,97],"categories":[92],"hallucinations":[94],"utilizing":[96],"truthfulness-related":[98],"steering":[99,104],"vectors":[100],"adjusting":[102],"intensity":[105],"adaptively.":[106],"Applied":[107],"add-on":[110],"across":[111,136],"various":[112],"significantly":[115],"improves":[116],"LLaMA":[119],"(\u2191142%),":[120],"LLaMA2":[121],"(\u219124%),":[122],"Alpaca":[123],"(\u219136%),":[124],"Vicuna":[125],"(\u219128%),":[126],"LLaMA2-Chat":[127],"(\u219119%),":[128],"LLaMA3(\u219134%).":[130],"Furthermore,":[131],"verify":[133],"ACT's":[134],"scalability":[135],"larger":[137],"models":[138],"(13B,":[139],"33B,":[140],"65B),":[141],"underscoring":[142],"adaptability":[144],"large-scale":[148],"models.":[150],"Our":[151],"code":[152],"is":[153],"available":[154],"at":[155],"https://github.com/tianlwang/ACT.":[156]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":2},{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-04-13T07:58:08.660418","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}