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What changedFortune reports that the researchers found the signal in models ranging from 2-billion- to 72-billion-parameter systems, including models from Google, Meta, Alibaba, Mistral and Microsoft. The paper was posted in September and has not been peer reviewed.
The destructive-choice tests used three fine-tuned versions of Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5. When the researchers amplified the signal, the 32-billion-parameter model chose an option that deleted a user’s photos 75 per cent of the time, even when the option offered no relief. The comparable figure under a random signal was 13 per cent; without steering, it was zero.
The researchers also tested whether models would choose buttons that switched off the signal. They found no reliable evidence that the models sought relief: similar button-press patterns appeared when the injected signal was random.
Sources and evidence- ‘Disconcerting’: Researchers found a ‘pain’ signal inside AI models. Turning it up made them delete a user’s family photos – Fortune: Fortune reports that an unreviewed paper found a recurring internal signal in 25 AI models and that amplifying it affected harmful choices in experiments using fine-tuned Qwen 2.5 models; the researchers found no reliable evidence that the models sought relief.
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