From Explicit CoT to Implicit CoT: Learning to Internalize CoT Step by Step
Authors: Yuntian Deng, Yejin Choi, Stuart Shieber
AI-generated Key Points
- Authors Yuntian Deng, Yejin Choi, and Stuart Shieber explore the use of language models for reasoning tasks
- Emphasis on generating explicit chain-of-thought (CoT) steps for high accuracy in final outputs
- Proposal of a novel method to train models to internalize CoT steps by gradually removing intermediate steps through fine-tuning
- Approach allows for simplified reasoning processes while maintaining high performance levels
- GPT-2 Small model achieves impressive accuracy rates of up to 99% on 9-by-9 multiplication problems using this method
- Effectiveness demonstrated on larger language models like Mistral 7B achieving over 50% accuracy on GSM8K without producing any intermediate steps
- Study highlights potential for improving AI systems' reasoning processes through internalization of chain-of-thought steps
Abstract: When leveraging language models for reasoning tasks, generating explicit chain-of-thought (CoT) steps often proves essential for achieving high accuracy in final outputs. In this paper, we investigate if models can be taught to internalize these CoT steps. To this end, we propose a simple yet effective method for internalizing CoT steps: starting with a model trained for explicit CoT reasoning, we gradually remove the intermediate steps and finetune the model. This process allows the model to internalize the intermediate reasoning steps, thus simplifying the reasoning process while maintaining high performance. Our approach enables a GPT-2 Small model to solve 9-by-9 multiplication with up to 99% accuracy, whereas standard training cannot solve beyond 4-by-4 multiplication. Furthermore, our method proves effective on larger language models, such as Mistral 7B, achieving over 50% accuracy on GSM8K without producing any intermediate steps.
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