Sparse Autoencoders Reveal Temporal Difference Learning in Large Language Models

In-context learning, the ability to adapt based on a few examples in the input prompt, is a ubiquitous feature of large language models (LLMs). However, as LLMs' in-context learning abilities continue to improve, understanding this phenomenon mechanistically becomes increasingly important. In particular, it is not well-understood how LLMs learn to solve specific classes of problems, such as reinforcement learning (RL) problems, in-context. Through three different tasks, we first show that Llama 3 70B can solve simple RL problems in-context. We then analyze the residual stream of Llama using Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) and find representations that closely match temporal difference (TD) errors. Notably, these representations emerge despite the model only being trained to predict the next token. We verify that these representations are indeed causally involved in the computation of TD errors and Q-values by performing carefully designed interventions on them. Taken together, our work establishes a methodology for studying and manipulating in-context learning with SAEs, paving the way for a more mechanistic understanding. ⋆ Equal contribution.