发现大模型能通过指令操控内部激活,可能绕过安全监控。
Measuring Activation Control in Large Language Models

- 用自然语言指令测试模型对残差流的控制能力
- 多数模型可调节激活方向和大小,部分任务中成功率超60%
- 适合关注模型安全与内省能力的研究者
大型语言模型在部署时的安全性可能依赖于潜在空间监控,作为行为评估的补充。然而,若模型能自主控制自身激活,则欺骗行为可能深入到潜在空间本身。为此,我们提出激活可控性基准,量化模型通过自然语言指令调节残差流的能力。在不同模型家族和能力层级下,多数大模型能在一定程度上实现对激活方向和幅度的调控,且具备一定时间分辨率。在简单任务中,这种控制能力可规避多种激活监控方法(包括线性探测、自然语言自编码器、激活预言机和雅可比透镜),尽管效果不完美。结果表明,随着模型内省能力增强,对激活空间的控制可能成为监控机制的干扰因素;因此,建议前沿实验室和评估者在今后模型中追踪激活可控性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Safe deployment of increasingly capable models will likely come to rely on latent-space monitoring as a complement to behavioral evaluations, especially when evaluation-aware models exhibit scheming or deception. However, if models can also control their own activations, deception could extend into the latent space itself. With this in mind, we introduce the Activation Controllability Benchmark to quantify the extent to which models can modulate their residual stream via natural-language instruction. Across model families and capability levels, we find that most LLMs can control the direction and magnitude of their residual stream activations with some degree of temporal resolution, though performance varies considerably across models. In simple tasks, this level of control can evade activation-based monitoring methods (including linear probes, natural language autoencoders, activation oracles, and the Jacobian lens), albeit imperfectly. These results suggest that control over the activation space itself could become a confound for monitoring as introspective capabilities increase; therefore, we recommend that frontier labs and evaluators track activation controllability in future models.
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