Equation 3 · Part 1 · Ten Failure Modes That Show Up Across Every Frontier Model, Not Just One

Symbol Delta_configuration

\Delta_{\text{configuration}}

\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

Delt $a_c$ onfiguration is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Full expressionSymbol Delta_configurationArticle meaning

Where the article explains it

$\Delta_{\text{configuration}}$ 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

$\Delta_{\text{contamination}}$ is inflation from the model having seen the benchmark, or something close to it, during training. $\Delta_{\text{configuration}}$ 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 modes below are different ways that $\Delta_{\text{contamination}}$ and $\Delta_{\text{configuration}}$ get large without the label on the chart changing.

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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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