Discovering Interpretable Acoustic Features in Autoregressive Voice-Cloning TTS Models
Anuj Diwan, David Harwath, Eunsol Choi
AI 速览：该论文提出一个基于特征的框架，用于解释自回归语音克隆TTS模型内部表征的声学属性，并评估稀疏自编码器、PCA和随机方向在探测与操控上的效果。
Voice-cloning TTS models synthesize an unseen speaker's voice from brief speech prompts, but it remains unclear which acoustic properties they represent and use. We introduce a feature-based interpretability framework for autoregressive voice-cloning TTS models, analyzing features from sparse autoencoders (SAEs), PCA, and random directions via sparse probing, steering, and quantitative auto-interpretability. We focus on Qwen3-TTS and extend probing and steering to $5$ additional models to test generalization across architectures. These models encode concepts like pitch, energy, noise, and accent, but sparse prediction and steering are effective only for some concepts. Strong probing does not always translate to steering or vice-versa. SAEs are useful for sparse probing of human-labelled concepts and novel-concept discovery, while PCA is competitive for dense probing and steering. Auto-interpretability finds $684$ automatically validated SAE features in Qwen3-TTS covering speaker clusters, speaking style, and recording conditions beyond known concepts. Overall, we perform a comprehensive interpretability study of autoregressive voice-cloning TTS models.
Nishant Balepur, Bhavya Rajasekaran, Hyunjin Jane Oh, Michael Xie, Atrey Desai University of Maryland, College Park and University of Texas at Arlington, Vipul Gupta Scale AI, Steven James Moore George Mason University, Eunsol Choi New York University 等 10 位作者
Multiple-choice question answering (MCQA) is standard in NLP, but benchmarks lack rigorous quality control. We present BenchMarker, an education-inspired toolkit using LLM judges to flag three common MCQ flaws: 1) contamination—items appearing exactly online; 2) shortcuts—cues in the choices that enable guessing; and 3) writing errors—structural/grammatical issues based on a 19-rule education rubric. We validate BenchMarker with human annotations, then run the tool to audit 12 benchmarks, revealing: 2) contaminated MCQs tend to inflate accuracy, while writing errors tend to lower it and change rankings beyond random; and 3) prior benchmark repairs address their targeted issues (i.e., lowering accuracy with LLM-written distractors), but inadvertently add new flaws (i.e. implausible distractors, many correct answers). Overall, flaws in MCQs degrade NLP evaluation, but education research offers a path forward. We release BenchMarker to bridge the fields and improve MCQA benchmark design.
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cs.CL
Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) · 2026 · 正式发表
Nishant Balepur, Malachi Hamada Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Varsha Kishore Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Sergey Feldman Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Cowboys, Amanpreet Singh Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Pao Siangliulue Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Joseph Chee Chang Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Eunsol Choi New York University 等 10 位作者
Deep Research (DR) tools (e.g. OpenAI DR) help researchers cope with ballooning publishing counts. Such tools can synthesize scientific papers to answer researchers’ queries, but lack understanding of their users. We change that in MyScholarQA (MySQA), a personalized DR tool that: 1) infers a profile of a user’s research interests; 2) proposes personalized actions for a user’s input query; and 3) writes a multi-section report for the query that follows user-approved actions. We first test MySQA with NLP’s standard protocol: we design a benchmark of synthetic users and LLM judges, where MySQA beats baselines in citation metrics and personalized action-following. However, we suspect this process does not cover all aspects of personalized DR users value, so we interview users in an online version of MySQA to unmask them. We reveal nine nuanced errors of personalized DR undetectable by our LLM judges, and we study qualitative feedback to form lessons for future DR design. In all, we argue for a pillar of personalization that easy-to-use LLM judges can lead NLP to overlook: real progress in personalization is only possible with real users.
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cs.CL
Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) · 2026 · 正式发表