We are finally beginning to understand how LLMs work: No, they don't simply predict word after word

In context: The constant improvements AI companies have been making to their models might lead you to think we've finally figured out how large language models (LLMs) work. But nope – LLMs continue to be one of the least understood mass-market technologies ever. But Anthropic is attempting to change that with a new technique called circuit tracing, which has helped the company map out some of the inner workings of its Claude 3.5 Haiku model.

Circuit tracing is a relatively new technique that lets researchers track how an AI model builds its answers step by step – like following the wiring in a brain. It works by chaining together different components of a model. Anthropic used it to spy on Claude's inner workings. This revealed some truly odd, sometimes inhuman ways of arriving at an answer that the bot wouldn't even admit to using when asked.

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