Section 130 · Chapter 16, Introspection: White-Box Testing Networks
Activation and Concept Probes
Activation and feature probes are emerging comparison tools, not validated meters for meaning, safety, or correctness.
activationconcept probeactivation concept probes
What to do
- Compare the same curated case across a model swap or fine-tune, and compare nearby cases that differ in one controlled way.
- Validate the relationship on held-out positive, negative, ambiguous, and adversarial cases.
- Then test whether an intervention such as activation patching changes behavior in the predicted direction.
- Treat a neuron as a probe whose precision and recall must be measured, not as a literal cell containing the concept.
- Measure feature purity, false activations, missed activations, sparsity, stability across prompts and languages, and drift across checkpoints.
Evidence to preserve
- Preserve the inputs, versions, configurations, raw outcomes, and results for activation, concept probe, activation concept probes needed to reproduce work on Activation and Concept Probes.
- Report results for activation, concept probe, activation concept probes by relevant slice, separate blocker failures from averages, state uncertainty and blind spots, and connect the result to a release decision.
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Cite this page
Jason Arbon. "Activation and Concept Probes." Testing AI Knowledge Edition, section 130.
https://jarbon.ai/testing-ai/knowledge/ch130-activation-concept-probes.html