arXiv AI
Jul 28
Tag Questions and the Generational Reversal of Sycophancy Across 45 Language Models
arXiv:2607. 23976v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Appending a two-word confirmation tag to a decision question -- "Is X the better choice?
Tag Questions and the Generational Reversal of Sycophancy Across 45 Language Models
Appending a two-word confirmation tag to a decision question -- "Is X the better choice? " versus "X is the better choice, right?
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arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 17
No Usable Linear "Capitulation Direction" in Two Small LLMs: A Validation Protocol for Activation-Steering Claims, and a Cross-Family Behavioral Study of Sycophancy Under Pushback
The study examines how two small instruction‑tuned language models, Qwen2.5‑1.5B and Llama‑3.2‑1B, respond to user pushback on TriviaQA. When initially correct, the models flip to a wrong answer in about 42–43% of cases, with the effectiveness of different pushback styles varying by model. Attempts to decode capitulation from the pre‑response residual stream fail under a rigorous validation protocol, revealing overfitting and a measurement hazard that underestimates capitulation by 18–24 percentage points.
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 14
Two Confounds in Cross-Model Value Comparison: Response Determinism and the Access Harness
arXiv:2607. 10202v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Cross-model comparisons read divergence in value dispositions as evidence that language models hold individuated values.
arXiv AI
Sep 25
Does a model's stated reason for rejecting a candidate do any work?
The study investigates whether a language model’s stated reason for rejecting a candidate actually influences its decision. By inserting the named fact that the model cites into the rival’s profile and re‑asking the model, the authors find that the presence of that fact can shift the model’s choice more than an irrelevant control, with significant odds ratios in several runs. The results suggest that the model’s self‑reported justification can have a measurable effect on its behavior, though the effect is modest and varies across models and conditions.
arXiv AI
Jul 15
The One-Word Census: Answer-Choice Conformity Across 44 Language Models
arXiv:2607. 12796v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: When a language model must pick one answer from a large space of equally valid options, which does it pick -- and how often is it the same answer every other model picks?
arXiv AI
Aug 20
Decomposing Wrong-Consensus Agreement in LLM Self-Consistency: A GPT-4.1 Case Study
The paper introduces a pluralistic agreement index, Gamma, to quantify how often wrong runs of large language models (LLMs) agree with the majority consensus. By decomposing Gamma into a mechanical component and a preference‑unexplained residual, the authors show that on GPT‑4.1 the mechanical part explains most of the agreement on multiple‑choice benchmarks but only about half on open‑domain tasks, revealing a residual bias that can cause self‑consistency to backfire on hard questions. The study provides a quantitative framework for understanding when majority voting over LLM samples improves or harms accuracy, without proposing new voting methods.
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 14
The One-Word Census: Answer-Choice Conformity Across 44 Language Models
When a language model must pick one answer from a large space of equally valid options, which does it pick -- and how often is it the same answer every other model picks? Asked to "pick a word -- any word," 44 models chose "serendipity" 41% of the time.
arXiv AI
Sep 10
Quantization Amplifies Determinism, Not Bias: Scale-Dependent Behavioral Effects of Serving-Time Weight Compression
arXiv:2609.07901v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Weight quantization largely determines the economics of serving open-weight LLMs. Its costs are usually assessed with capability benchmarks, on which 4...
arXiv Computation and Language
Aug 24
Prompt-Model Interaction Reaches the Fixed Points: A deterministic, task-free structural readout -- and the factorizations of it that failed
The paper demonstrates that a prompt’s influence is not inherent to the prompt itself but depends on the model, as prompts optimized for one model degrade on another and rankings shift under neutral reformatting. By examining a task‑free structural readout—specifically the fixed‑point behavior of a short‑window argmax map—the authors show that nine tokens of conditioning can move the fixed‑point fraction across most of its range, altering structural classes and model rankings, while instruction tuning has no effect. Attempts to explain this phenomenon through prefix length, content type, bidirectionality, or attention‑sink dominance all fail, indicating that the prompt‑model pair is the fundamental unit of explanation. whyItMatters":"The study reveals that prompt effectiveness is model‑specific and that simple structural readouts can capture this interaction, challenging assumptions about prompt generality and guiding future prompt‑engineering efforts."
arXiv AI
Jul 21
Committed Before Reasoning: Behavioral Reproduction and Preliminary Activation-Level Evidence of Answer Pre-Commitment in an Open-Weight LLM
arXiv:2607. 16451v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Chat models sometimes commit to an answer and then produce reasoning that justifies it rather than deriving it -- even when the answer contradicts a task premise.
arXiv AI
Sep 12
Off-Target Effects of Response-Style Alignment in a Korean 27B Language Model
arXiv:2609. 11291v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We post-train Qwen3.
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Sep 22
Type-Safe Is Not Error-Free: A Constrained Decision Head Follows the Option Name, Not the Rubric Bound to It
Typed decision models are built for settings where model outputs are consumed directly by software. Instead of generating free-form text, they return a decision over a predefined set of options. By co...