{"paper":{"title":"An Information-Theoretic Criterion for Efficient Data Synthesis","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.AI","cs.IT","math.IT"],"primary_cat":"cs.LG","authors_text":"Hanyu Li, Xiaotie Deng, Zhengqi Sun","submitted_at":"2026-05-11T01:27:59Z","abstract_excerpt":"Synthetic data becomes crucial for large language model training, but its effectiveness is highly inconsistent. We provide an information-theoretic account of this inconsistency: synthetic data improves a model only when the generation-training loop is information-open, i.e., shaped by external signals (verifiers, environments, or rubrics) that inject task-relevant information beyond the model's current distribution. When the loop is information-closed (relying on the model's own outputs without such signals), the data processing inequality ensures that task-relevant information can only decre"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.16379","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.16379/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[{"name":"ai_meta_artifact","ran_at":"2026-05-19T19:34:36.615102Z","status":"skipped","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0}],"snapshot_sha256":"a233500c8b3697ab26c30d7b67bd98eb06f9c7a41a458d98a666a2e3445e01f1"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}