Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Gupta, Rohan, Arcuschin, Iván, Kwa, Thomas, Garriga-Alonso, Adrià
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14494
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866909835786715136
author Gupta, Rohan
Arcuschin, Iván
Kwa, Thomas
Garriga-Alonso, Adrià
author_facet Gupta, Rohan
Arcuschin, Iván
Kwa, Thomas
Garriga-Alonso, Adrià
contents Mechanistic interpretability methods aim to identify the algorithm a neural network implements, but it is difficult to validate such methods when the true algorithm is unknown. This work presents InterpBench, a collection of semi-synthetic yet realistic transformers with known circuits for evaluating these techniques. We train simple neural networks using a stricter version of Interchange Intervention Training (IIT) which we call Strict IIT (SIIT). Like the original, SIIT trains neural networks by aligning their internal computation with a desired high-level causal model, but it also prevents non-circuit nodes from affecting the model's output. We evaluate SIIT on sparse transformers produced by the Tracr tool and find that SIIT models maintain Tracr's original circuit while being more realistic. SIIT can also train transformers with larger circuits, like Indirect Object Identification (IOI). Finally, we use our benchmark to evaluate existing circuit discovery techniques.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_14494
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle InterpBench: Semi-Synthetic Transformers for Evaluating Mechanistic Interpretability Techniques
Gupta, Rohan
Arcuschin, Iván
Kwa, Thomas
Garriga-Alonso, Adrià
Machine Learning
Mechanistic interpretability methods aim to identify the algorithm a neural network implements, but it is difficult to validate such methods when the true algorithm is unknown. This work presents InterpBench, a collection of semi-synthetic yet realistic transformers with known circuits for evaluating these techniques. We train simple neural networks using a stricter version of Interchange Intervention Training (IIT) which we call Strict IIT (SIIT). Like the original, SIIT trains neural networks by aligning their internal computation with a desired high-level causal model, but it also prevents non-circuit nodes from affecting the model's output. We evaluate SIIT on sparse transformers produced by the Tracr tool and find that SIIT models maintain Tracr's original circuit while being more realistic. SIIT can also train transformers with larger circuits, like Indirect Object Identification (IOI). Finally, we use our benchmark to evaluate existing circuit discovery techniques.
title InterpBench: Semi-Synthetic Transformers for Evaluating Mechanistic Interpretability Techniques
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14494