EXP-PERSONA-ABLATION

… pending

PERSONA ablation — emergent or prescribed differentiation?

2026-04-17 L5 level paper3 5 runs $0.08

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In plain language

Researchers are investigating whether an AI's distinct behaviors are naturally learned or simply follow instructions. They tested this by having the AI act with one set of instructions for a period, then switching to simpler instructions. The results will show if the AI's unique behaviors persist after the initial instructions are removed, indicating if these behaviors emerged on their own.

▶ Technical details

Research hypothesis

Absorption diagnostic showed PERSONA_C has d_between=0.78 (close to ISOLATED 0.87). But differentiation may be PRESCRIBED (agents follow persona text) rather than EMERGENT (structure beyond prompt). Test: run PERSONA for rounds 0-40, then swap to MINIMAL for 40-80. Compare second-half differentiation: - matches PERSONA_C (absorption-diag rounds 40-80) → EMERGENT - decays to MINIMAL_C → PRESCRIBED

Experimental setup

Type: simple

Condition	Parameters
PERSONA_ABLATE_40	persona: PERSONA, coupling: COUPLED, n_runs: 5

Factors: coupling (COUPLED)

Parameters

n_agents: 6
n_rounds: 80
n_runs_per_condition: 5
model: google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite
temperature: 0.7
scheduler: round_robin

persona-ablation emergence-test diagnostic ladder-1a-prime-2