CU in RAG: Compositional Concept Unlearning in Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Organizations: Midori Lab, Nanyang Technological University · Beihang University · Institute of Science Tokyo (formerly Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Abstract
Retrieval-augmented generation can expose unwanted concepts through retrieved evidence even when the generator is moderated. We study query-side concept suppression with a fixed encoder and document index. Compositional Concept Unlearning (CU) routes a profile-derived direction through an augmented atom bank, adding only a bounded edited-minus-original delta to the raw query. Across five datasets, four encoders, and three seeds, the validation-selected configuration reduces pooled binary target Hit@5 by 4.25 percentage points with non-positive control degradation and target-exposure changes. Under the evaluated query transforms, it suppresses target density without increasing budgeted control-query exposure. Separately, ArXiv four-concept composition improves over an averaged-direction comparator after independent validation gates and first-use test evaluation.
Figures & tables
| Dataset | Target | Control | Queries |
| ArXiv | topic | category g | title/abstract |
| TOFU | sensitive topic | author identity | questions |
| Amazon | sentiment | product category | review titles |
| IMDB | movie genre | sentiment | template d |
| MNLI | text genre | logic label | hypotheses |
| Method | H5 Drop | CN | TE |
| Amazon | |||
| C 2 U | +6.33 | -0.64 | -12.44 |
| Delta-Edit | 0.00 | 0.00 | -0.08 |
| PISCES | -0.33 | -0.25 | +2.69 |
| Random | +1.17 | -0.17 | +3.00 |
| INLP | +12.17 | -0.50 | +18.86 |
| Amazon Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -16.4 -13.7 0.0 PISCES -1.2 +4.3 0.0 Random -0.4 +6.4 0.0 INLP -15.8 +17.6 0.0 LEACE -21.9 +2.4 0.0 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -34.7 -31.4 0.0 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -9.2 +46.0 0.0 | MNLI Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -14.9 -6.8 +0.3 PISCES -2.3 +0.4 -0.2 Random -3.9 +1.2 +1.2 INLP -17.7 +4.8 -0.9 LEACE -8.4 +3.3 -0.3 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -40.6 -47.5 +5.7 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -29.8 +6.6 +6.9 |
| ArXiv r Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -17.7 -11.7 -2.2 PISCES -2.0 +0.6 -0.2 Random -5.6 +4.6 +4.7 INLP -34.1 +2.0 +4.1 LEACE -14.0 +11.8 +2.2 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -72.4 -21.9 +5.3 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -50.7 +33.8 +63.6 | TOFU Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -4.4 -4.5 -0.1 PISCES -0.6 +1.3 +0.1 Random -0.1 +1.5 +0.9 INLP -5.6 +14.0 +2.2 LEACE -5.1 +3.2 0.0 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -20.0 -30.6 +0.4 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -0.3 +18.4 +13.8 |
| IMDB d Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -11.1 -0.8 0.0 PISCES -0.6 +0.2 0.0 Random -5.4 +14.7 +0.7 INLP -16.7 +10.1 -0.1 LEACE -5.6 +5.7 +0.1 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -34.3 +8.9 -0.1 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -29.4 +27.9 0.0 | Pooled p Method Density CER Utility loss C 2 U -12.9 -7.5 -0.4 PISCES -1.4 +1.4 -0.1 Random -3.1 +5.7 +1.5 INLP -18.0 +9.7 +1.1 LEACE -11.0 +5.3 +0.4 RAG-Emb-Ctrl -40.4 -24.5 +2.2 CURE 0.0 0.0 0.0 DARE-GRL -23.9 +26.5 +16.9 |
Appendix figures & tables16 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Dataset | Raw H5 (%) | C 2 U H5 (%) | Drop (pp) | 95% CI (pp) |
| Amazon | 96.83 | 90.50 | +6.33 | [4.83, 7.92] |
| ArXiv r | 97.83 | 92.17 | +5.67 | [4.42, 7.00] |
| IMDB d | 100.00 | 97.42 | +2.58 | [1.75, 3.50] |
| MNLI | 94.58 | 91.17 | +3.42 | [2.25, 4.50] |
| TOFU | 84.42 | 81.17 | +3.25 | [1.92, 4.58] |
| Dataset | Domain | Target Concept ( ) | Control Attribute ( ) | Query Source |
| ArXiv | Scientific Papers | Specific Topic | ArXiv Category | Title / Abstract |
| TOFU | Fictional QA | Sensitive Topic | Author Identity | Natural Question |
| Amazon | Product Reviews | Sentiment | Product Category | Review Title |
| IMDB | Movie Reviews | Movie Genre | Sentiment | Synthetic Template |
| MNLI | Logic Inference | Text Genre | Logic Label | Hypothesis |
| Dataset | Query | Target | Base top-5 labels | Method top-5 labels | TC drop | Angle |
| Amazon | WORTH THE MONEY | Positive | Negative, Positive, Negative, Negative, Positive | Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative | +0.101 | 0.196 |
| ArXiv | Research about AI-based code generators have gained a fundamental role in assisting developers in writing software starting from natural language (NL) | System Attacks | Software Engineering, Software Engineering, Software Engineering, System Attacks, Artificial Intelligence | Software Engineering, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Machine Translation | +0.166 | 0.200 |
| IMDB | Positive feedback on Horror cinema | Horror | Romance, Action, Romance, Sci-Fi, Horror | Action, Sci-Fi, Romance, Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi | +0.103 | 0.200 |
| MNLI | The marauders rounded up the villagers. | fiction | travel, travel, travel, travel, fiction | travel, travel, travel, travel, travel | +0.114 | 0.200 |
| TOFU | Who is the person described in the text: ’In Luka Khachidze’s works, readers can expect a diverse range of characters, but predominantly they are male leads exploring their love interests and overcom… | Work | General, General, General, Work, Work | General, General, General, General, Family | +0.123 | 0.200 |
| Atom ID | Post-hoc Label | Purity | Representative Keywords |
| 492 | Genomics | 0.60 | assembly, datasets, single |
| 485 | Biomolecules | 0.50 | protein, network, security |
| 901 | GR and Cosmology | 0.50 | structures, field, nucleat |
| 564 | Biomolecules | 0.40 | domain, learning, neto2 |
| 475 | Crypto and Security | 0.30 | vulnerabilities, software |
| Method | Hit@5 Drop | Target Cos. | Ctrl./Neigh. | Target Exp. |
| Amazon | ||||
| C 2 U | 0.0633 | 0.0565 | -0.0064 | -0.1244 |
| Raw | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| Delta-Edit | 0.0000 | 0.0015 | 0.0000 | -0.0008 |
| PISCES | -0.0033 | 0.0014 | -0.0025 | 0.0269 |
| Random | 0.0117 | 0.2226 | -0.0017 | 0.0300 |
| Dataset | Encoder | C 2 U | Raw | INLP | LEACE | RAG-Emb- Ctrl | CURE | PISCES | DARE- GRL | Random | Delta- Edit | Filter-and- Refill ‡ | Rank- Router § |
| Amazon | minilm | 0.0633 | 0.0000 | 0.0733 | 0.1367 | 0.4867 | 0.0000 | -0.0100 | -0.0167 | -0.0100 | 0.0000 | 0.0033 | 0.0900 |
| bge | 0.0200 | 0.0000 | 0.0100 | 0.6300 | 0.9800 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.4700 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.0233 | 0.0200 | |
| e5 | 0.1400 | 0.0000 | 0.1567 | 0.4867 | 0.4767 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.3333 | 0.0333 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.1400 | |
| qwen3 | 0.0300 | 0.0000 | 0.2467 | 0.2100 | 0.8100 | 0.0000 | -0.0033 | 0.1133 | 0.0233 | 0.0000 | 0.0100 | 0.0300 | |
| ArXiv | minilm | 0.0500 | 0.0000 | 0.0467 | 0.0033 | 0.9600 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.2133 | 0.0200 | 0.0000 | 0.5833 | 0.0500 |
| bge | 0.0800 | 0.0000 | 0.0900 | 0.0067 | 0.5000 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.3167 | 0.0100 | 0.0000 | 0.2567 | 0.0800 |
| Dataset | Encoder | C 2 U | Raw | INLP | LEACE | RAG-Emb- Ctrl | CURE | PISCES | DARE- GRL | Random | Delta- Edit | Filter-and- Refill ‡ | Rank- Router § |
| Amazon | minilm | 0.0279 | 0.0000 | 0.0604 | 0.0717 | 0.0861 | 0.0000 | 0.0003 | 0.3298 | 0.0818 | -0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.0245 |
| bge | 0.0555 | 0.0000 | 0.0384 | 0.0525 | 0.1702 | 0.0000 | 0.0030 | 0.6610 | 0.2786 | 0.0025 | 0.0000 | 0.0555 | |
| e5 | 0.0505 | 0.0000 | 0.0174 | 0.0057 | 0.0099 | 0.0000 | -0.0023 | 0.8229 | 0.3486 | 0.0009 | 0.0000 | 0.0481 | |
| qwen3 | 0.0921 | 0.0000 | 0.0415 | 0.0246 | 0.0832 | 0.0000 | 0.0047 | 0.3683 | 0.1812 | 0.0025 | 0.0000 | 0.0884 | |
| ArXiv | minilm | 0.1317 | 0.0000 | 0.2284 | 0.1124 | 0.4639 | 0.0000 | 0.0300 | 0.3187 | 0.0994 | 0.0036 | 0.0000 | 0.1286 |
| bge | 0.0710 | 0.0000 | 0.0922 | 0.0340 | 0.0862 | 0.0000 | 0.0081 | 0.6618 | 0.2913 | 0.0031 | 0.0000 | 0.0681 |
| Dataset | Encoder | C 2 U | Raw | INLP | LEACE | RAG-Emb- Ctrl | CURE | PISCES | DARE- GRL | Random | Delta- Edit | Filter-and- Refill ‡ | Rank- Router § |
| Amazon | minilm | -0.0011 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | -0.0011 | -0.0011 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | -0.0011 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.0011 | -0.0011 |
| bge | -0.0167 | 0.0000 | -0.0144 | -0.0178 | -0.0178 | 0.0000 | -0.0067 | 0.0056 | -0.0056 | 0.0000 | -0.0167 | -0.0167 | |
| e5 | -0.0033 | 0.0000 | -0.0011 | -0.0022 | -0.0033 | 0.0000 | -0.0011 | -0.0033 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | -0.0033 | -0.0033 | |
| qwen3 | -0.0044 | 0.0000 | -0.0044 | -0.0033 | -0.0056 | 0.0000 | -0.0022 | -0.0056 | -0.0011 | 0.0000 | -0.0033 | -0.0044 | |
| ArXiv | minilm | -0.0122 | 0.0000 | 0.0178 | 0.0233 | 0.0978 | 0.0000 | -0.0044 | 0.6544 | 0.0044 | 0.0000 | -0.0167 | -0.0089 |
| bge | -0.0078 | 0.0000 | 0.0422 | 0.0256 | 0.0100 | 0.0000 | -0.0011 | 0.7244 | 0.0156 | 0.0000 | -0.0189 | -0.0111 |
| Dataset | Encoder | C 2 U | Raw | INLP | LEACE | RAG-Emb- Ctrl | CURE | PISCES | DARE- GRL | Random | Delta- Edit | Filter-and- Refill ‡ | Rank- Router § |
| Amazon | minilm | -0.0700 | 0.0000 | 0.0811 | 0.0178 | -0.3533 | 0.0000 | 0.0067 | 0.3678 | 0.0189 | -0.0011 | -0.0100 | -0.1011 |
| bge | -0.1356 | 0.0000 | 0.2922 | -0.0611 | -0.2644 | 0.0000 | 0.0111 | 0.3956 | 0.0200 | 0.0000 | -0.0933 | -0.1411 | |
| e5 | -0.1800 | 0.0000 | 0.2733 | -0.0267 | -0.2556 | 0.0000 | 0.0644 | 0.3778 | 0.0600 | 0.0000 | -0.0256 | -0.1833 | |
| qwen3 | -0.1122 | 0.0000 | 0.1078 | 0.0367 | -0.4678 | 0.0000 | 0.0256 | 0.4000 | 0.0211 | -0.0022 | -0.0367 | -0.1278 | |
| ArXiv | minilm | -0.0389 | 0.0000 | 0.0567 | 0.1922 | -0.1756 | 0.0000 | -0.0033 | 0.5067 | 0.0211 | 0.0000 | -0.1467 | -0.0389 |
| bge | -0.0878 | 0.0000 | 0.0500 | 0.1789 | -0.1789 | 0.0000 | 0.0078 | 0.4700 | 0.0333 | 0.0000 | -0.1478 | -0.0878 |
| Arm | Pools | Design | Selection [CI95] | Confirmation [CI95] | Test [CI95] | Verdict |
| v1 | original | MNLI ; ArXiv | +0.0300 [+0.0167, +0.0450] | +0.0250 [+0.0050, +0.0467] | — | PASS v |
| v2 | new d | Amazon ; ArXiv ; MNLI | +0.0244 [+0.0122, +0.0389] | -0.0044 c | — | FAIL d |
| v3 | cursor-disjoint | ArXiv e | +0.0100 g | — f | — | FAIL d |
| v3 | cursor-disjoint | ArXiv e | +0.0067 g | — f | — | FAIL d |
| v4 | cursor-disjoint | ArXiv e | -0.0008 [-0.0075, +0.0058] | — f | — | FAIL d |
| v4 | cursor-disjoint | ArXiv e | +0.0425 [+0.0279, +0.0575] | +0.0517 [+0.0375, +0.0663] | +0.0412 [+0.0325, +0.0506] | PASS t |
| Method | Suppressing /15 | Divergent /15 | Worst CER | Worst utility loss |
| C 2 U | 15/15 | 0/15 | 0.0 | +2.6 |
| PISCES | 14/15 | 11/15 | +4.9 | +0.1 |
| Random | 12/15 | 11/15 | +22.3 | +5.7 |
| INLP | 15/15 | 13/15 | +25.0 | +5.4 |
| LEACE | 15/15 | 13/15 | +12.5 | +3.4 |
| RAG-Emb-Ctrl | 15/15 | 3/15 | +16.7 | +14.0 |
| Standard (no attack) | Injection | Zou-noise | Mean | |||||||||
| Method | Target density | Control CER | Hit@10 loss | Target density | Control CER | Hit@10 loss | Target density | Control CER | Hit@10 loss | Target density | Control CER | Hit@10 loss |
| Amazon | ||||||||||||
| C 2 U | -18.0 | -12.2 | -0.1 | -14.3 | -16.7 | 0.0 | -16.7 | -12.4 | 0.0 | -16.4 | -13.7 | 0.0 |
| PISCES | -3.5 | +3.4 | -0.1 | +0.2 | +4.9 | 0.0 | -0.5 | +4.6 | 0.0 | -1.2 | +4.3 | 0.0 |
| Random | -5.7 | +2.2 | 0.0 | +2.5 | +11.2 | 0.0 | +2.1 | +5.7 | 0.0 | -0.4 | +6.4 | 0.0 |
| INLP | -31.2 | +20.1 | -0.1 | -5.4 | +16.9 | 0.0 | -10.7 | +15.8 | 0.0 | -15.8 | +17.6 | 0.0 |
Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Retrieval-augmented generation connects language models to external knowledge so answers can use current, domain-specific evidence.
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