揭示大模型深层中因果几何动态如何将上下文转化为预测
Emergent Causal-Geometric Dynamics Across Depth in Large Language Models
- 结合几何分析与因果干预,以深度为轴心解析模型演化
- 深层出现从理解上下文到生成预测的突变,几何结构渐进重组
- 发现角度编码预测相似性,可精准控制输出,适合模型可解释性研究
大型语言模型(LLM)表征的几何分析揭示了深度方向上的结构变化,但与词元预测形成的关系仍属相关性。同时,因果干预显示不同深度的干预效果存在差异,却缺乏统一的表征动态解释。要完整理解LLM功能,需阐明表征结构如何随深度演变以因果方式生成预测。本文通过融合几何分析与机制干预,将深度动态作为解释模型功能的核心轴线。在仅解码器架构的LLM中,我们识别出从上下文处理到预测生成的显著转变,伴随表征几何的更渐进重组。该整合揭示了一种深层几何编码:角度结构参数化下一个词的概率分布相似性,实现对预测的选择性因果控制;而表示范数则编码与预测基本无关的信息。结果提供因果与几何视角的统一,揭示控制相关的几何动态如何将上下文转化为预测。这一视角调和了以往看似矛盾的发现,表明层间功能无法孤立理解或干预,而必须置于网络的涌现全局动力结构之中。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Geometric analyses of large language model (LLM) representations reveal structured variation across depth but remain fundamentally correlational with respect to token prediction formation. Meanwhile, causal interventions expose depth-dependent efficacy profiles without a unifying account of their representational dynamics. A complete account of LLM function requires explaining how representational structure evolves across depth to causally produce predictions. We synthesize these perspectives by combining geometric analysis with mechanistic interventions, explicitly centralizing depth-wise dynamics as the organizing axis for interpreting LLM function. In decoder-only LLMs, we identify a sharp transition from context-processing to prediction-forming computation, accompanied by a more gradual reorganization of representational geometry across layers. This synthesis reveals a late-layer geometric code in which angular structure parameterizes next-token distributional similarity and enables selective causal control over predictions, while representation norms encode information largely decoupled from prediction. Together, our results provide a synthesis of causal and geometric perspectives, yielding a mechanistic account of how control-relevant geometric dynamics across depth transform context into prediction in language models. This perspective reconciles previously puzzling findings and implies that layer-wise function cannot be understood or effectively intervened upon in isolation, but only within the emergent global dynamical structure of the network.
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