待翻譯：Safe Evolution with Circuit Anchors
AI 服務暫時不可用，以下為來源摘要，待恢復後補全翻譯：arXiv:2608.05158v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In biological evolution, unconstrained mutation can lead to catastrophic outcomes: organisms may evolve enhanced capabilities while losing essential functions for survival. Nature's solution is \textit{developmental constraints}, where core regulatory genes remain anchored while peripheral genes adapt freely. We observe that current self-evolution algorithms for large language models lack analogous constraints. They optimize purely for capability, implicitly assuming safety will be preserved. Our experiments reveal this assumption to be dangerously wrong: models can \textit{misevolve} into powerful yet dangerous entities. Inspired by how Hox genes anchor body structure across $500$ million years of evolution, we propose \textbf{Circuit-Anchored Evolution (CAE)}. Using mechanistic interpretability, we identify a tiny \textit{safety circuit}, comprising less than $2$\% of model features, that causally mediates safety behaviors. We anchor this circuit during evolution, constraining it within a small displacement bound while allowing the remaining features to evolve freely. This mirrors the biological principle of \textit{evolvability with constraint}: preserving what is essential while adapting what is peripheral. Experiments across $3$ model families and two evolution algorithms demonstrate that CAE achieves superior safety preservation with minimal capability loss, substantially outperforming explicit reward-based constraints in both effectiveness and efficiency. Just as developmental constraints prevent biological evolution from producing nonviable organisms, circuit anchoring prevents model evolution from producing capable but dangerous systems.
AI 服務暫時不可用，以下為來源正文，待恢復後補全翻譯。
--> [Submitted on 24 May 2026] Title:Safe Evolution with Circuit Anchors View a PDF of the paper titled Safe Evolution with Circuit Anchors, by Yan Liu and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:In biological evolution, unconstrained mutation can lead to catastrophic outcomes: organisms may evolve enhanced capabilities while losing essential functions for survival. Nature's solution is \textit{developmental constraints}, where core regulatory genes remain anchored while peripheral genes adapt freely. We observe that current self-evolution algorithms for large language models lack analogous constraints. They optimize purely for capability, implicitly assuming safety will be preserved. Our experiments reveal this assumption to be dangerously wrong: models can \textit{misevolve} into powerful yet dangerous entities. Inspired by how Hox genes anchor body structure across $500$ million years of evolution, we propose \textbf{Circuit-Anchored Evolution (CAE)}. Using mechanistic interpretability, we identify a tiny \textit{safety circuit}, comprising less than $2$\% of model features, that causally mediates safety behaviors. We anchor this circuit during evolution, constraining it within a small displacement bound while allowing the remaining features to evolve freely. This mirrors the biological principle of \textit{evolvability with constraint}: preserving what is essential while adapting what is peripheral. Experiments across $3$ model families and two evolution algorithms demonstrate that CAE achieves superior safety preservation with minimal capability loss, substantially outperforming explicit reward-based constraints in both effectiveness and efficiency. Just as developmental constraints prevent biological evolution from producing nonviable organisms, circuit anchoring prevents model evolution from producing capable but dangerous systems. Subjects: Computation and Language (cs.CL); Machine Learning (cs.LG); Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE) Cite as: arXiv:2608.05158 [cs.CL] (or arXiv:2608.05158v1 [cs.CL] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.05158 arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Yan Liu [view email] [v1] Sun, 24 May 2026 15:12:09 UTC (149 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Safe Evolution with Circuit Anchors, by Yan Liu and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: cs.CL new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: cs cs.LG cs.NE References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Loading... Data provided by: Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)