arXiv:2605.28825cs.CL2026-05

用机制可解释性方法挖掘大模型隐藏知识,提升安全检测能力。

MechELK: A Mechanistic Interpretability Framework for Eliciting Latent Knowledge in Large Language Models

  • 通过特征分析与激活修补定位隐含知识
  • 在错误或回避回答中成功提取78.3%的隐藏知识
  • 无需修改模型即可提取知识,适合安全检测场景

大语言模型常在其内部表征中编码事实与推理知识,但这些知识未在表面输出中体现,称为‘隐含知识’。现有方法如对比一致性搜索(CCS)依赖对比激活模式,在复杂多步推理任务中表现不佳;而机制可解释工具多用于理解模型行为,而非提取隐藏知识。本文提出统一三阶段框架MechELK:(1)定位——利用稀疏自编码器(SAE)特征分析与激活修补识别承载知识的表示;(2)验证——通过因果探针区分真实隐含知识与虚假关联;(3)激发——采用表示工程在不修改模型权重的前提下显露隐藏知识。在TruthfulQA、Deceptive Alignment基准和Quirky LM数据集上评估,MechELK平均提取准确率达84.7%,优于CCS 6.2%,优于直接线性探针9.1%。关键发现:在模型表面输出错误或回避回答的78.3%情况下,仍能识别出隐含知识,证明其在人工智能安全(如欺骗对齐检测)中的应用价值。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large language models (LLMs) frequently encode factual and reasoning knowledge in their internal representations that is not faithfully reflected in their surface-level outputs -- a phenomenon known as \emph{latent knowledge}. Existing approaches to eliciting latent knowledge, such as Contrastive Consistency Search (CCS), rely on contrastive activation patterns and struggle with complex multi-step reasoning tasks, while mechanistic interpretability tools have primarily been used to \emph{understand} model behavior rather than to \emph{extract} hidden knowledge. We present \textbf{MechELK}, a unified three-stage framework that bridges mechanistic interpretability and latent knowledge elicitation. MechELK operates through: (1) \textbf{Locate} -- using Sparse Autoencoder (SAE) feature analysis and activation patching to identify knowledge-bearing representations; (2) \textbf{Verify} -- employing causal probing to distinguish genuine latent knowledge from spurious correlations; and (3) \textbf{Elicit} -- applying representation engineering to surface hidden knowledge without modifying model weights. Evaluated on TruthfulQA, a curated Deceptive Alignment benchmark, and the Quirky LM dataset, MechELK achieves an average elicitation accuracy of 84.7\%, outperforming CCS by 6.2\% and direct linear probing by 9.1\%. Crucially, MechELK successfully identifies latent knowledge in 78.3\% of cases where the model's surface output is incorrect or evasive, demonstrating its utility for AI safety applications including deceptive alignment detection.

可解释性隐含知识大模型安全

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