Robust and comprehensive evaluation of large language models (LLMs) is essential for identifying effective LLM system configurations and mitigating risks associated with deploying LLMs in sensitive domains. However, traditional statistical metrics are poorly suited to open-ended generation tasks, leading to growing reliance on LLM-based evaluation methods. These methods, while often more flexible, introduce additional complexity: they depend on carefully chosen models, prompts, parameters, and evaluation strategies, making the evaluation process prone to misconfiguration and bias. In this work, we present EvalSense, a flexible, extensible framework for constructing domain-specific evaluation suites for LLMs. EvalSense provides out-of-the-box support for a broad range of model providers and evaluation strategies, and assists users in selecting and deploying suitable evaluation methods for their specific use-cases. This is achieved through two unique components: (1) an interactive guide aiding users in evaluation method selection and (2) automated meta-evaluation tools that assess the reliability of different evaluation approaches using perturbed data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of EvalSense in a case study involving the generation of clinical notes from unstructured doctor-patient dialogues, using a popular open dataset. All code, documentation, and assets associated with EvalSense are open-source and publicly available at https://github.com/nhsengland/evalsense.

Research in uncertainty quantification (UQ) for large language models (LLMs) is increasingly important towards guaranteeing the reliability of this groundbreaking technology. We explore the integration of LLM UQ methods in argumentative LLMs (ArgLLMs), an explainable LLM framework for decision-making based on computational argumentation in which UQ plays a critical role. We conduct experiments to evaluate ArgLLMs’ performance on claim verification tasks when using different LLM UQ methods, inherently performing an assessment of the UQ methods’ effectiveness. Moreover, the experimental procedure itself is a novel way of evaluating the effectiveness of UQ methods, especially when intricate and potentially contentious statements are present. Our results demonstrate that, despite its simplicity, direct prompting is an effective UQ strategy in ArgLLMs, outperforming considerably more complex approaches.