arXiv AI

Where does Absolute Position come from in decoder-only Transformers?

arXiv:2606. 06160v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: RoPE-trained transformers distinguish absolute position in their attention patterns, even though RoPE encodes only relative offsets in the inner product.

arXiv AI
Jul 22

A Controlled Study of Attention-Only Transformers

arXiv:2607. 18363v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Feed-forward networks hold two thirds of a transformer's non-embedding parameters, yet the architecture has not received a necessity test that controls parameters, compute, and depth at once.

By Henry Ndubuaku, Karen Mosoyan, Jakub Mroz, Noah Cylich, Satyajit Kumar, Parkirat Sandhu, Roman Shemet, Justin H Lee
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 7

Legible-by-Construction: Attention and End-to-End Transformers

arXiv:2607. 04319v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: A companion paper showed that a transformer's feed-forward layer can be rebuilt from explicit fuzzy set operations - intersection, set-difference, and a self-forgetting sequence quantifier - so its hidden units read as named logical operators at no cost to language-model quality.

By Mark Oskin
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 17

Dissociating Decodability and Causal Use in Bracket-Sequence Transformers

arXiv:2604. 22128v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: When trained on tasks requiring an understanding of hierarchical structure, transformers have been found to represent this hierarchy in distinct ways: in the geometry of the residual stream, and in stack-like attention patterns maintaining a last-in, first-out ordering.

By Aryan Sharma, Cutter Dawes, Shivam Raval