ALIGN: Word Association Learning for Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models (2026.acl-long)
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| Challenge: | Large language models exhibit cultural bias from over-represented viewpoints in training data, yet cultural alignment remains a challenge due to limited cultural knowledge and a lack of exploration into effective learning approaches. |
| Approach: | They propose a cost-efficient method for fine-tuning large language models on native speakers’ word-association norms and a preference optimization method to improve cultural alignment. |
| Outcome: | The proposed model trains Llama-3.1-8B and Qwen-2.5-7B on native speakers’ word-association norms and shows that such associations capture cultural knowledge. |
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