Is this market really only at 63%? I think you should take the over.

Five tiers of rigor for safety-oriented interpretability work

Lately, I have been thinking of interpretability research as falling into five different tiers of rigor.

1. Pontification

This is when researchers claim they have succeeded in interpreting a model by definition or based on analyzing results and asserting hypotheses about them. This is a key part of the scientific method. But by itself, it is not good science. Previously in this sequence, I have argued that this standard is fairly pervasive.

2. Basic Science

This is when researchers develop an interpretation, use it to make some (usually simple) prediction, and then show that this prediction validates. This is at least doing science, but it doesn't necessarily demonstrate any usefulness or value.

3. Streetlight/Toy Demos

This is [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Five tiers of rigor for safety-oriented interpretability work

(00:33) 1. Pontification

(00:58) 2. Basic Science

(01:16) 3. Streetlight/Toy Demos

(01:30) 4. Useful Engineering

(01:55) 5. Net Safety Benefit

(02:24) What's been happening lately?

(02:28) Recently, some solid work has been done in tier 3.

(04:28) I think that tier 4 has (barely) been broken into.

(05:08) Current efforts may soon break further into tier 4.

(06:12) What might happen next with SAEs

(06:16) Past predictions

(08:38) New predictions

(11:41) What if we succeed?

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First published:

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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