Paper ID: 2411.07037

LIFBench: Evaluating the Instruction Following Performance and Stability of Large Language Models in Long-Context Scenarios

Xiaodong Wu, Minhao Wang, Yichen Liu, Xiaoming Shi, He Yan, Xiangju Lu, Junmin Zhu, Wei Zhang

As Large Language Models (LLMs) continue to advance in natural language processing (NLP), their ability to stably follow instructions in long-context inputs has become crucial for real-world applications. While existing benchmarks assess various LLM capabilities, they rarely focus on instruction-following in long-context scenarios or stability on different inputs. In response, we introduce the Long-context Instruction-Following Benchmark (LIFBench), a scalable dataset designed to evaluate LLMs' instruction-following capabilities and stability across long contexts. LIFBench comprises three long-context scenarios and eleven diverse tasks, supported by 2,766 instructions generated through an automated expansion method across three dimensions: length, expression, and variables. For evaluation, we propose LIFEval, a rubric-based assessment framework that provides precise, automated scoring of complex LLM responses without relying on LLM-assisted evaluations or human judgments. This approach facilitates a comprehensive analysis of model performance and stability across various perspectives. We conduct extensive experiments on 20 notable LLMs across six length intervals, analyzing their instruction-following capabilities and stability. Our work contributes LIFBench and LIFEval as robust tools for assessing LLM performance in complex, long-context settings, providing insights that can inform future LLM development.

Submitted: Nov 11, 2024