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Equation 1 · Part 4 · Ten Failure Modes That Show Up Across Every Frontier Model, Not Just One

Symbol Delta_configuration

sobserved=scapability+Δcontamination+Δconfigurations_{\text{observed}} = s_{\text{capability}} + \Delta_{\text{contamination}} + \Delta_{\text{configuration}}
Δconfiguration\Delta_{\text{configuration}}

What this part means

variance from everything about how the question was asked, formatted, and scored — prompt wording, decoding settings, which variant answered.

Its job in the formula

Deltaca_configuration is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.

Where the article explains it

Δconfiguration\Delta_{\text{configuration}} is variance from everything about how the question was asked, formatted, and scored — prompt wording, decoding settings, which variant answered.

The passage around this formula

…plus at least two other things that vary independently of it: sobserved=scapability+Δcontamination+Δconfigurations_{\text{observed}} = s_{\text{capability}} + \Delta_{\text{contamination}} + \Delta_{\text{configuration}}. Δcontamination\Delta_{\text{contamination}} is inflation from the model having seen the benchmark, or something close to it, during training. Δconfiguration\Delta_{\text{configuration}} is variance from everything about how the question was asked, formatted, and scored — prompt wording, decoding settings, which variant answered. Both terms are provider-specific and time-specific; neither is disclosed by the headline number. Three of the ten failure…

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Learn the underlying idea

A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.

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