38.2 - Jesse Hoogland on Singular Learning Theory

You may have heard of singular learning theory, and its "local learning coefficient", or LLC - but have you heard of the refined LLC? In this episode, I chat with Jesse Hoogland about his work on SLT, and using the refined LLC to find a new circuit in language models.

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The transcript: axrp.net/episode/2024/11/27/38_2-jesse-hooglan…
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The Alignment Workshop: alignment-workshop.com

Topics we discuss, and timestamps:
00:34 - About Jesse
01:49 - The Alignment Workshop
02:31 - About Timaeus
05:25 - SLT that isn't developmental interpretability
10:41 - The refined local learning coefficient
14:06 - Finding the multigram circuit

Links:
Differentiation and Specialization of Attention Heads via the Refined Local Learning Coefficient: arxiv.org/abs/2410.02984
Investigating the learning coefficient of modular addition: hackathon project: lesswrong.com/posts/4v3hMuKfsGatLXPgt/investig…

Episode art by Hamish Doodles: hamishdoodles.com