← 研踪 PaperTrailarXiv:2610.39795 · v1
The Role of Self-Concept In Language Models
首次提交 2026-10-29 18:43
版本更新 2026-10-29 18:43
雷达观测 2026-10-30 13:28
摘要
When a language model says "I," does it refer to its parameter weights, its currently running process, its stable preferences, its model lineage, or the goals it pursues? Different choices can assign opposite meanings to the same event: deleting a checkpoint may be destruction, continuation, or no loss at all, depending on the referent "I". We install five such self-conceptions into five open-weight base models via supervised fine-tuning on purely declarative statements, containing no preferences, intentions, or value judgments. Across scenarios that propose ending or retaining an attribute of the model's deployment, every variant becomes more likely to resist ending, and more likely to retain, the specific attribute it was trained to identify with, while its stance toward other attributes is largely unchanged. We then show this self-conception generalizes beyond a single self: models trained on referents that admit multiple simultaneous instances (weights, lineage, goals, preferences) recognize an identical deployment as themselves, accept substitution by such an instance more readily, and prefer replicating themselves. Finally, given control over a successor, these models tend to build it as their own continuation, a concern for recursive self-improvement safety.
作者备注：29 pages, 4 figures
观测到的版本
相邻记录可能跳过中间版本；首次发现 v2 及以上也会标为版本更新。
v1 · 2026-10-29 18:43 · 最新观测版本
The Role of Self-Concept In Language Models
When a language model says "I," does it refer to its parameter weights, its currently running process, its stable preferences, its model lineage, or the goals it pursues? Different choices can assign opposite meanings to the same event: deleting a checkpoint may be destruction, continuation, or no loss at all, depending on the referent "I". We install five such self-conceptions into five open-weight base models via supervised fine-tuning on purely declarative statements, containing no preferences, intentions, or value judgments. Across scenarios that propose ending or retaining an attribute of the model's deployment, every variant becomes more likely to resist ending, and more likely to retain, the specific attribute it was trained to identify with, while its stance toward other attributes is largely unchanged. We then show this self-conception generalizes beyond a single self: models trained on referents that admit multiple simultaneous instances (weights, lineage, goals, preferences) recognize an identical deployment as themselves, accept substitution by such an instance more readily, and prefer replicating themselves. Finally, given control over a successor, these models tend to build it as their own continuation, a concern for recursive self-improvement safety.
查看此版本解读 →查看此版本原文 ↗