Equation 25 · Probing, Sparse Autoencoders, Patching, and Steering: The Main Interpretability Methods, Compared
What does this equation mean?
Read the formula alongside the article passage below. Each part has a deeper page with its role in the equation, the supporting passage and nearby citations.
This equation states an equality: the expressions on both sides have the same value under the article’s assumptions. Read the equation part by part below; each part has a contextual explanation and a link to its mathematical background.
Read it piece by piece
Symbol v_ell
ll is part of the quantity the equation computes from the expression on the right.
Symbol P
P occurs below the fraction bar. The quantity above the bar is divided by this expression; zero is excluded as a denominator.
Symbol i
i appears in the bound of this sum. The bound states where the repeated operation starts, ends, or which values it includes.
Symbol x_i^+
is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.
Symbol N
N occurs below the fraction bar. The quantity above the bar is divided by this expression; zero is excluded as a denominator.
Symbol x_i^-
is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.
=
The expressions on both sides represent the same quantity under the stated assumptions.
See an illustrated explanation →subscript
The lower label selects a particular version, component, or indexed member of the quantity. For example, x₀ and xₜ can be values at different positions.
superscript
A raised number can be a power. When it is a label or bound, it selects a case or the upper limit of a sum; the formula’s structure distinguishes these uses.
See an illustrated explanation →Denominator: |P|
The complete quantity below the fraction bar; it must be nonzero for this division.
Starting index or lower bound: i in P
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation starts. Read its value or condition together with the article’s description of the index.
Denominator: |N|
The complete quantity below the fraction bar; it must be nonzero for this division.
Starting index or lower bound: i in N
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation starts. Read its value or condition together with the article’s description of the index.
How to interpret it
With a fixed numerator, increasing a nonzero denominator reduces the fraction. Read it with the definitions, units, and assumptions supplied by the article.
What the article says around this equation
The construction is a mean-difference direction, added back into the residual stream with a tunable strength at inference time: . where P and N index matched positive and negative examples of the target behaviour, is the residual-stream activation at layer , and is a coefficient the operator sets by hand. Nothing in this construction requires understanding why the network represents the concept along this direction, only that adding it produces the intended behavioural shift.
Sources cited in the article section
- [12] Representation Engineering: A Top-Down Approach to AI Transparency ↗
- [13] Steering Language Models With Activation Engineering ↗
- [14] Steering Llama 2 via Contrastive Activation Addition ↗
- [15] Analyzing the Generalization and Reliability of Steering Vectors ↗
These citations give research context. Read each source to check which claims it supports.