World Model Interpretability: From Decoding Representations to Understanding Latent Worlds
Summary
A perspective paper proposing a four-stage research agenda (Ground, Structure, Verify, Act) for interpreting JEPA-based latent world models, arguing interpretability should shift from decoding representations to understanding how latent variables interact, evolve, and causally drive prediction.
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Paper page - World Model Interpretability: From Decoding Representations to Understanding Latent Worlds
Source: https://huggingface.co/papers/2610.25296 Published on Oct 18
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Submitted byhttps://huggingface.co/Jize1
Jizeon Oct 20
Abstract
JEPA latent-world interpretability should shift from decoding representations to analyzing how latent variables interact, evolve, and causally drive prediction through grounding, structuring, verifying, and acting.
EmergingJoint-Embedding Predictive Architectures(JEPAs) are moving beyond representation learning towardslatent world modelsthat support prediction, planning, and control. Yet their latent worlds naturally lack a human-interpretable interface. In this Perspective, we argue that asJEPAlatents become internal states for prediction and action, interpretability must move beyond what they encode to howlatent variablesinteract, evolve, and causally drive prediction. To this end, we envision a four-stage research agenda, involving Ground, Structure, Verify, and Act, to guide this shift toward actionable latent-world understanding. Within our framework, existingJEPAinterpretability efforts provide early evidence for Ground, while systematic analysis of latent structure,causal verification, andinterventionremains largely unexplored. Overall, this Perspective aims to call for a broader latent-world interpretability agenda that shifts attention from decoding representations toward understanding, validating, and acting on latent worlds.
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