# (QA)$^2$: Question Answering with Questionable Assumptions

Source: [(QA)$^2$: Question Answering with Questionable Assumptions](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa706f1e209131cea4af3e>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2026-01-02T03:23:53.770Z

Authors: Najoung Kim, Phu Mon Htut, Samuel R. Bowman, Jackson Petty

Published: 2022-12-20T05:25:12.000Z

## Abstract

Naturally occurring information-seeking questions often contain questionable assumptions -- assumptions that are false or unverifiable. Questions containing questionable assumptions are challenging because they require a distinct answer strategy that deviates from typical answers for information-seeking questions. For instance, the question "When did Marie Curie discover Uranium?" cannot be answered as a typical "when" question without addressing the false assumption "Marie Curie discovered Uranium". In this work, we propose (QA)$^2$ (Question Answering with Questionable Assumptions), an open-domain evaluation dataset consisting of naturally occurring search engine queries that may or may not contain questionable assumptions. To be successful on (QA)$^2$, systems must be able to detect questionable assumptions and also be able to produce adequate responses for both typical information-seeking questions and ones with questionable assumptions. Through human rater acceptability on end-to-end QA with (QA)$^2$, we find that current models do struggle with handling questionable assumptions, leaving substantial headroom for progress.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10003>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2212.10003.pdf>)

[Implementation](<https://github.com/najoungkim/QAQA>)
