arXiv AI

Xeno-Interpretability: Investigating the Alien Minds of LLMs

The paper introduces the concept of xeno-interpretability, which studies internal distinctions in large language models that lack corresponding human concepts. It distinguishes between human‑interpretable and xeno‑semantic spaces, showing that LLMs possess a far larger internal representational space than can be captured by finite human descriptions. The authors propose an empirical program to identify and characterize these xeno‑representations, noting their potential to influence model behavior in ways that are not fully visible through human‑readable communication.

arXiv AI
Jun 26

Radical AI Interpretability

arXiv:2606. 26523v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We develop a framework for interpreting AI systems as agents, drawing on the philosophical tradition of radical interpretation and the tools of mechanistic interpretability.

By Daniel A. Herrmann, Benjamin A. Levinstein
arXiv AI
Sep 15

Generative Interpretability via Scalable Neuro-Symbolic Models

The paper argues that as Large Language Models transition from chatbots to agentic systems, the current post-hoc interpretability paradigm is insufficient for safe deployment because it cannot audit or intervene before an output is produced. It proposes a shift to generative interpretability, where a model’s inference process inherently exposes semantically meaningful checkpoints that are human-understandable and can be causally intervened upon. The authors illustrate the advantages of this approach and introduce Neuro‑Symbolic Models as a concrete implementation.

By Xiaocong Yang
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Aug 20

Enforcing LLM Safety through DMD-based Classification of Prompt-Response Embedding Dynamics

The paper extends a dynamical systems approach to classify unsafe outputs from large language models (LLMs) by projecting prompts and responses into high‑dimensional embeddings and fitting separate Koopman-based predictive models for safe and unsafe regimes. A differential residual score compares prediction errors from these models to classify new outputs. Experiments on three safety benchmarks show that including prompt embeddings improves detection of interaction‑dependent violations, especially with causal decoders like Llama‑3, while response‑only violations benefit more from dense semantic embeddings.

arXiv AI
Jul 29

Localizing Persona Representations in LLMs

arXiv:2505. 24539v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We present a study on how and where personas -- defined by distinct sets of human characteristics, values, and beliefs -- are encoded in the representation space of large language models (LLMs).

By Celia Cintas, Miriam Rateike, Erik Miehling, Elizabeth Daly, Skyler Speakman
arXiv AI
Sep 4

Representational alignment yields generalizable safety in language models

The paper argues that aligning large language models (LLMs) at the level of latent representations—specifically by matching their internal categorization of moral concepts to human prototype-based judgments—improves safety. Current alignment methods that focus on observable responses fail to preserve fine-grained moral categorization, leaving models vulnerable to adversarial rephrasings. By optimizing representational similarity, the authors demonstrate that LLMs can maintain more robust moral categorization and exhibit better adversarial robustness across multiple benchmarks and model sizes.

By Lingyu Li, Yan Teng, Yingchun Wang, Xia Hu
arXiv AI
Sep 1

QUACK: Questioning, Understanding, and Auditing Communicated Knowledge in Multimodal Social Deduction Agents

arXiv:2605.27068v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Social deduction games have become a popular testbed for probing reasoning, deception, coordination, and belief modeling in Large Language Mo...

By Ye Yuan, Rui Song, Weien Li, Zeyu Li, Haochen Liu, Xiangyu Kong, Changjiang Han, Yonghan Yang, Zichen Zhao, Zixuan Dong, Fuyuan Lyu, Bowei He, Haolun Wu, Jikun Kang, Xue Liu