Cyber for AI at SemEval-2025 Task 4: Forgotten but Not Lost: The Balancing Act of Selective Unlearning in Large Language Models

Dinesh Srivasthav P, Bala Mallikarjunarao Garlapati


Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) face significant challenges in maintaining privacy, ethics, and compliance, when sensitive or obsolete data must be selectively removed. Retraining these models from scratch is computationally infeasible, necessitating efficient alternatives. As part of the SemEval 2025 Task 4, this work focuses on the application of selective unlearning in LLMs to address this challenge. In this paper, we present our experiments and findings, primarily leveraging global weight modification to achieve an equilibrium between effectiveness of unlearning, knowledge retention, and target model’s post-unlearning utility. We also detail the task-specific evaluation mechanism, results, and challenges. Our algorithms have achieved an aggregate score of 0.409 and 0.389 on the test set for 7B and 1B target models, respectively, demonstrating promising results in verifiable LLM unlearning.
Anthology ID:
2025.semeval-1.57
Volume:
Proceedings of the 19th International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval-2025)
Month:
July
Year:
2025
Address:
Vienna, Austria
Editors:
Sara Rosenthal, Aiala Rosá, Debanjan Ghosh, Marcos Zampieri
Venues:
SemEval | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
407–417
Language:
URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/corrections-2025-08/2025.semeval-1.57/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Dinesh Srivasthav P and Bala Mallikarjunarao Garlapati. 2025. Cyber for AI at SemEval-2025 Task 4: Forgotten but Not Lost: The Balancing Act of Selective Unlearning in Large Language Models. In Proceedings of the 19th International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval-2025), pages 407–417, Vienna, Austria. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Cyber for AI at SemEval-2025 Task 4: Forgotten but Not Lost: The Balancing Act of Selective Unlearning in Large Language Models (P & Garlapati, SemEval 2025)
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PDF:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/corrections-2025-08/2025.semeval-1.57.pdf