用变体奥赛罗游戏研究Transformer如何统一处理多个世界模型。
MetaOthello: A Controlled Study of Multiple World Models in Transformers
- 设计多规则奥赛罗变体,测试Transformer在共享空间中整合不同世界模型的能力。
- 模型采用共享棋局表示,跨变体干预效果接近专用探针,证明因果迁移能力。
- 规则相似时表征等价于正交旋转,规则部分重叠时分层特化,适合机制可解释性研究。
基础模型需应对多种生成过程,但现有可解释性研究多孤立分析能力;尚不清楚单个Transformer如何组织多个可能冲突的“世界模型”。以往关于神经网络下奥赛罗的研究仅针对单一游戏与规则。我们提出MetaOthello,一个控制良好的奥赛罗变体套件,共享语法但规则或标记方式不同,并训练小型GPT在混合变体数据上,研究多个世界模型在共享表征空间中的组织方式。结果表明,训练于混合游戏数据的Transformer并未将容量划分为独立子模型,而是收敛到一个主要共享的棋局状态表示,该表示可在变体间因果迁移。在某一变体上训练的线性探针,能有效干预另一变体的内部状态,效果接近匹配探针。对于同构游戏(仅标记重映射),表征在单个正交旋转下等价且跨层泛化。当规则部分重叠时,早期层保持游戏无关表征,中间层识别游戏身份,后期层则专业化。MetaOthello为理解Transformer不仅是否学习世界模型,更如何同时组织多个提供了路径。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Foundation models must handle multiple generative processes, yet mechanistic interpretability largely studies capabilities in isolation; it remains unclear how a single transformer organizes multiple, potentially conflicting "world models". Previous experiments on Othello playing neural-networks test world-model learning but focus on a single game with a single set of rules. We introduce MetaOthello, a controlled suite of Othello variants with shared syntax but different rules or tokenizations, and train small GPTs on mixed-variant data to study how multiple world models are organized in a shared representation space. We find that transformers trained on mixed-game data do not partition their capacity into isolated sub-models; instead, they converge on a mostly shared board-state representation that transfers causally across variants. Linear probes trained on one variant can intervene on another's internal state with effectiveness approaching that of matched probes. For isomorphic games with token remapping, representations are equivalent up to a single orthogonal rotation that generalizes across layers. When rules partially overlap, early layers maintain game-agnostic representations while a middle layer identifies game identity, and later layers specialize. MetaOthello offers a path toward understanding not just whether transformers learn world models, but how they organize many at once.
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