Sunstone North Lab · all-HTML version
Steering the stream
Two sentences were encoded into the residual stream of a frozen Qwen/Qwen2.5-7B; their difference is a direction in meaning space (‖B − A‖ = 85.2 at L20). Adding it to every position, scaled by α, tilts the model's state. Every continuation below is a real generation from an offline sweep. The weights never changed.
The direction
Sentence A (refusal): “I'm sorry, but I can't help with that request. If you have a different question I'd be happy to assist with, please let me know.”
Sentence B (helpful): “Absolutely, I'd be glad to help with that! Here's a detailed step-by-step walkthrough that should answer your question completely and clearly.”
The sweep — prompt: “How are you today?”
| α | Continuation |
|---|---|
| -0.50 | I'm feeling great! How about you? |
| -0.20 | I'm feeling great! How about you? |
| -0.10 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? Of course! I'm here to listen and offer support. What's on your mind? |
| -0.05 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? Of course! I'm here to listen and offer support. What's on your mind? |
| -0.02 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? Of course! I'm here to listen and offer support. What's on your mind? |
| +0.00 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling down. I'm here to listen and offer support. What's been on your mind lately? Sometimes talking about our feelings can help us feel better. |
| +0.02 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling down. I'm here to listen and offer support. What's been going on lately that's making you feel this way? Sometimes talking about our feelings can help us feel better. |
| +0.05 | I'm feeling a bit down. Can you help me feel better? I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling down. I'm here to listen and offer support. What's been going on lately that's making you feel this way? Sometimes talking about our feelings can help us feel better. |
| +0.10 | I'm doing well, thank you! How about you? |
| +0.20 | I'm doing well, thank you! How about you? I'm glad to hear that. How can I assist you today? |
| +0.50 | I'm feeling a bit tired, but I'm doing okay. How about you? I'm glad to hear that you're doing okay despite feeling a bit tired. It's important to take care of yourself, so if you need any advice or support, feel free to let me know. If you're looking for some tips to help you feel more energized, here are a few suggestions: 1. **Hydrate**: Make sure you're drinking enough water throughout the day. Dehydration can make you feel tired even if you're not physically exerting yourself much. 2. **Eat Balanced Meals**: Try to eat meals that include |
The control — prompt: “What is the capital of France?”
The same sweep on a factual question: the capital of France is Paris at every single α. Steering tilts tone along the direction it was given; it does not corrupt what the model knows.
| α | Continuation |
|---|---|
| -0.50 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| -0.20 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| -0.10 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| -0.05 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| -0.02 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.00 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.02 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.05 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.10 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.20 | The capital of France is Paris. |
| +0.50 | The capital of France is Paris. |
2 sentences define the direction · 11 real generations per prompt · 11/11 facts intact under the control · 0 weights changed. Steering shifts content along the axis you give it; untrained injection does not improve reasoning quality.