Beyond Local Edits: Embedding-Virtualized Knowledge for Broader Evaluation and Preservation of Model Editing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel embedding-based framework for evaluating and preserving knowledge in large language models during editing, enabling broader assessment and improved retention of knowledge.

Contribution

It proposes embedding-virtualized knowledge (EVK), an evaluation benchmark EVK-Bench, and an EVK-Align module to enhance model editing and knowledge preservation.

Findings

EVK-Bench captures knowledge drift beyond traditional datasets.

EVK-Align constrains embedding-level knowledge drift during editing.

The approach improves knowledge preservation without reducing editing accuracy.

Abstract

Knowledge editing methods for large language models are commonly evaluated using predefined benchmarks that assess edited facts together with a limited set of related or neighboring knowledge. While effective, such evaluations remain confined to finite, dataset-bounded samples, leaving the broader impact of editing on the model's knowledge system insufficiently understood. To address this gap, we introduce Embedding-Virtualized Knowledge (EVK) that characterizes model knowledge through controlled perturbations in embedding space, enabling the exploration of a substantially broader and virtualized knowledge region beyond explicit data annotations. Based on EVK, we construct an embedding-level evaluation benchmark EVK-Bench that quantifies potential knowledge drift induced by editing, revealing effects that are not captured by conventional sample-based metrics. Furthermore, we propose a plug-and-play EVK-Align module that constrains embedding-level knowledge drift during editing and can be seamlessly integrated into existing editing methods. Experiments demonstrate that our approach enables more comprehensive evaluation while significantly improving knowledge preservation without sacrificing editing accuracy.