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Language Models Encode Numbers Using Digit Representations in Base 10 (arxiv.org)
2 points by beanvessel on Oct 16, 2024 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: By reading and nudging the model's signals, the study finds it stores numbers digit by digit in base 10, each digit as a spot on a circle, not one value. This explains why errors spread across digits instead of clustering near the right number.

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) frequently make errors when handling even simple numerical problems, such as comparing two small numbers. A natural hypothesis is that these errors stem from how LLMs represent numbers, and specifically, whether their representations of numbers capture their numeric values. We tackle this question from the observation that LLM errors on numerical tasks are often distributed across the digits of the answer rather than normally around its numeric value. Through a series of probing experiments and causal interventions, we show that LLMs internally represent numbers with individual circular representations per-digit in base 10. This digit-wise representation, as opposed to a value representation, sheds light on the error patterns of models on tasks involving numerical reasoning and could serve as a basis for future studies on analyzing numerical mechanisms in LLMs.

Amit Arnold Levy, Mor Geva
arXiv:2410.11781 · cs.LG · submitted Oct 15, 2024 · updated Feb 2, 2025
abstract · pdf · html · Accepted at NAACL 2025

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