提出C²R方法,解决稀疏自编码器特征分裂与吸收问题
C$^{2}$R: Cross-sample Consistency Regularization Mitigates Feature Splitting and Absorption in Sparse Autoencoders

- 通过跨样本一致性正则化,强制语义特征由统一潜在变量表示
- 在多个数据集上显著减少特征分裂(降低42%)和吸收现象
- 适合关注大模型可解释性、稀疏特征分解的研究者
稀疏自编码器(SAEs)广泛用于解析大语言模型,将激活分解为稀疏且可理解的特征,但扩展至大规模词典时暴露出根本性挑战。系统研究表明,普遍存在特征分裂——将完整概念拆分为非原子潜变量,以及特征吸收——导致通用特征出现任意例外,严重损害潜变量可靠性。其根源在于样本间潜变量分配不一致:缺乏跨样本约束时,单个概念可能被不一致地分布于多个冗余或干扰的潜变量中。为此,我们提出C²R(跨样本一致性正则化),显式鼓励同一语义特征在批量内由单一潜变量统一表示,通过惩罚方向相似潜变量的共激活来实现。全面评估表明,C²R有效缓解分裂与吸收问题,同时保持重建保真度,提供无需牺牲性能的可解释性增强方案。源码见https://github.com/hr-jin/Cross-sample-Consistency-Regularization。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) are widely used to interpret large language models by decomposing activations into sparse, human-understandable features, but scaling to large dictionaries exposes fundamental challenges. Systematic studies reveal pervasive feature splitting that fragments coherent concepts into non-atomic latents and widespread feature absorption that creates arbitrary exceptions in general features, severely compromising latent reliability. These issues stem from inconsistent latent assignment across samples: without cross-sample constraints, per-sample optimization often allows a single underlying concept to be inconsistently distributed across multiple redundant or interfering latents. To address this, we introduce C$^2$R (\underline{\textbf{C}}ross-sample \underline{\textbf{C}}onsistency \underline{\textbf{R}}egularization). C$^2$R explicitly encourages that each semantic feature is consistently represented by a unified latent across the batch by penalizing the co-activation of directionally similar latents. Comprehensive evaluation demonstrates that C$^2$R effectively mitigates both splitting and absorption while, crucially, preserving reconstruction fidelity, providing a principled solution that enhances latent interpretability without degrading model performance. Source code is available at https://github.com/hr-jin/Cross-sample-Consistency-Regularization.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。