@inproceedings{jiao-etal-2025-analyzing,
title = "Analyzing and Modeling {LLM} Response Lengths with Extreme Value Theory: Anchoring Effects and Hybrid Distributions",
author = "Jiao, Liuxuan and
Gao, Chen and
Yang, Yiqian and
Zhou, Chenliang and
Huang, YiXian and
Chen, Xinlei and
Li, Yong",
editor = "Christodoulopoulos, Christos and
Chakraborty, Tanmoy and
Rose, Carolyn and
Peng, Violet",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing",
month = nov,
year = "2025",
address = "Suzhou, China",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.1676/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.1676",
pages = "32992--33002",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-332-6",
abstract = "We present a statistical framework for modeling and controlling large language model (LLM) response lengths using extreme value theory. Analyzing 14,301 GPT-4o responses across temperature and prompting conditions, with cross-validation on Qwen and DeepSeek architectures, we demonstrate that verbosity follows Weibull-type generalized extreme value (GEV) distributions with heavier tails under stochastic generation. Our key contributions include: (1) development of a novel GEV-generalized Pareto (GPD) hybrid model that improves tail fit ($R^2_{\text{CDF}}=0.9993$ vs standalone GEV{'}s 0.998) while maintaining architectural generalizability; (2) quantitative characterization of prompt anchoring effects across models, showing reduced dispersion but increased outliers under randomization; and (3) identification of temperature-dependent response patterns that persist across architectures, with higher temperatures amplifying length variability while preserving extreme-value mechanisms. The hybrid model{'}s threshold selection method enables precise verbosity control in production systems regardless of model choice. While validated on multiple architectures, generalizability to emerging model families requires further study."
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<abstract>We present a statistical framework for modeling and controlling large language model (LLM) response lengths using extreme value theory. Analyzing 14,301 GPT-4o responses across temperature and prompting conditions, with cross-validation on Qwen and DeepSeek architectures, we demonstrate that verbosity follows Weibull-type generalized extreme value (GEV) distributions with heavier tails under stochastic generation. Our key contributions include: (1) development of a novel GEV-generalized Pareto (GPD) hybrid model that improves tail fit (R²_\textCDF=0.9993 vs standalone GEV’s 0.998) while maintaining architectural generalizability; (2) quantitative characterization of prompt anchoring effects across models, showing reduced dispersion but increased outliers under randomization; and (3) identification of temperature-dependent response patterns that persist across architectures, with higher temperatures amplifying length variability while preserving extreme-value mechanisms. The hybrid model’s threshold selection method enables precise verbosity control in production systems regardless of model choice. While validated on multiple architectures, generalizability to emerging model families requires further study.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Analyzing and Modeling LLM Response Lengths with Extreme Value Theory: Anchoring Effects and Hybrid Distributions
%A Jiao, Liuxuan
%A Gao, Chen
%A Yang, Yiqian
%A Zhou, Chenliang
%A Huang, YiXian
%A Chen, Xinlei
%A Li, Yong
%Y Christodoulopoulos, Christos
%Y Chakraborty, Tanmoy
%Y Rose, Carolyn
%Y Peng, Violet
%S Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
%D 2025
%8 November
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Suzhou, China
%@ 979-8-89176-332-6
%F jiao-etal-2025-analyzing
%X We present a statistical framework for modeling and controlling large language model (LLM) response lengths using extreme value theory. Analyzing 14,301 GPT-4o responses across temperature and prompting conditions, with cross-validation on Qwen and DeepSeek architectures, we demonstrate that verbosity follows Weibull-type generalized extreme value (GEV) distributions with heavier tails under stochastic generation. Our key contributions include: (1) development of a novel GEV-generalized Pareto (GPD) hybrid model that improves tail fit (R²_\textCDF=0.9993 vs standalone GEV’s 0.998) while maintaining architectural generalizability; (2) quantitative characterization of prompt anchoring effects across models, showing reduced dispersion but increased outliers under randomization; and (3) identification of temperature-dependent response patterns that persist across architectures, with higher temperatures amplifying length variability while preserving extreme-value mechanisms. The hybrid model’s threshold selection method enables precise verbosity control in production systems regardless of model choice. While validated on multiple architectures, generalizability to emerging model families requires further study.
%R 10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.1676
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.1676/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.1676
%P 32992-33002
Markdown (Informal)
[Analyzing and Modeling LLM Response Lengths with Extreme Value Theory: Anchoring Effects and Hybrid Distributions](https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.1676/) (Jiao et al., EMNLP 2025)
ACL