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Understanding the Emergence of Seemingly Useless Features in Next-Token Predictors

Mark Rofin, Jalal Naghiyev, Michael Hahn · Mar 14, 2026 · Citations: 0

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How to use this page

Low trust

Use this as background context only. Do not make protocol decisions from this page alone.

Best use

Background context only

What to verify

Read the full paper before copying any benchmark, metric, or protocol choices.

Evidence quality

Low

Derived from extracted protocol signals and abstract evidence.

Abstract

Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token. We identify which components of the gradient signal from the next-token prediction objective give rise to this phenomenon, and we propose a method to estimate the influence of those components on the emergence of specific features. After validating our approach on toy tasks, we use it to interpret the origins of the world model in OthelloGPT and syntactic features in a small language model. Finally, we apply our framework to a pretrained LLM, showing that features with extremely high or low influence on future tokens tend to be related to formal reasoning domains such as code. Overall, our work takes a step toward understanding hidden features of Transformers through the lens of their development during training.

Abstract-only analysis — low confidence

All signals on this page are inferred from the abstract only and may be inaccurate. Do not use this page as a primary protocol reference.

This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.
The available metadata is too thin to trust this as a primary source.
The abstract does not clearly describe the evaluation setup.
The abstract does not clearly name benchmarks or metrics.

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Should You Rely On This Paper?

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

Background context only.

Main weakness

This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.

Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

0/100 • Low

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Human Feedback Signal

Not explicit in abstract metadata

Evaluation Signal

Weak / implicit signal

Usefulness for eval research

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence 15%

If you are doing eval pipeline work, start here:

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What We Could Verify

These are the protocol signals we could actually recover from the available paper metadata. Use them to decide whether this paper is worth deeper reading.

Human Feedback Types

missing

None explicit

No explicit feedback protocol extracted.

"Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token."

Evaluation Modes

missing

None explicit

Validate eval design from full paper text.

"Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token."

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

No explicit QC controls found.

"Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token."

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

No benchmark anchors detected.

"Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token."

Reported Metrics

missing

Not extracted

No metric anchors detected.

"Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token."

Human Feedback Details

Uses human feedback: No
Feedback types: None
Rater population: Not reported
Expertise required: Coding

Evaluation Details

Evaluation modes:
Agentic eval: None
Quality controls: Not reported
Evidence quality: Low
Use this page as: Background context only

Protocol And Measurement Signals

Benchmarks / Datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported Metrics

No metric terms were extracted from the available abstract.

Research Brief

Metadata summary

Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token.

Based on abstract + metadata only. Check the source paper before making high-confidence protocol decisions.

Key Takeaways

Trained Transformers have been shown to compute abstract features that appear redundant for predicting the immediate next token.
We identify which components of the gradient signal from the next-token prediction objective give rise to this phenomenon, and we propose a method to estimate the influence of those components on the emergence of specific features.
After validating our approach on toy tasks, we use it to interpret the origins of the world model in OthelloGPT and syntactic features in a small language model.

Researcher Actions

Compare this paper against nearby papers in the same arXiv category before using it for protocol decisions.
Check the full text for explicit evaluation design choices (raters, protocol, and metrics).
Use related-paper links to find stronger protocol-specific references.

Caveats

Generated from abstract + metadata only; no PDF parsing.
Signals below are heuristic and may miss details reported outside the abstract.

Recommended Queries

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

We identify which components of the gradient signal from the next-token prediction objective give rise to this phenomenon, and we propose a method to estimate the influence of those components on the emergence of specific features.

Why It Matters For Eval

Abstract shows limited direct human-feedback or evaluation-protocol detail; use as adjacent methodological context.

Researcher Checklist

Gap: Human feedback protocol is explicit

No explicit human feedback protocol detected.
Gap: Evaluation mode is explicit

No clear evaluation mode extracted.
Gap: Quality control reporting appears

No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.
Gap: Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.
Gap: Metric reporting is present

No metric terms extracted.

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