Constructive Circuit Amplification: Improving Math Reasoning in LLMs via Targeted Sub-Network Updates

Prior studies investigating the internal workings of LLMs have uncovered sparse subnetworks, often referred to as circuits, that are responsible for performing specific tasks. Additionally, it has been shown that model performance improvement through fine-tuning often results from the strengthening of existing circuits in the model. Taken together, these findings suggest the possibility of intervening directly on such circuits to make precise, task-targeted updates. Motivated by these findings, we propose a novel method called Constructive Circuit Amplification which identifies pivotal tokens…