Yoav Goldberg: Interpretability Core is Understanding, Not Just Methods

yoavgo · x · 2026-08-26

Yoav Goldberg argues that the core of interpretability research is not inventing new methods, but further understanding mechanisms; method creation is a side effect. He also suggests that if interpretability is used solely for steering and judged by that, it becomes "steering research with a useless handicap" rather than true interpretability work.

Related event: Yoav Goldberg Sparks Debate: Mechanistic Understanding Should Trump Steering in Interpretability Research(8 posts)→

Original post →

More from Research

Research channel →