Two Maps of the Same City: Why LLM Architectures Converge on Concepts

Different LLM architectures encode high-level concepts in structurally compatible ways—but only up to a point. Geometric similarity between Llama, Qwen, Gemma, and Mistral is moderate at best (CKA_Δ around 0.3–0.7), yet a tiny affine map transfers persona classifiers with 94–99.9% accuracy across six concept domains. This geometric-functional dissociation suggests a weak version of the Platonic Representation Hypothesis: concept representations are universally recoverable, but not universally identical.

Date: June 20, 2026  |  Estimated Reading Time: 18 min  |  Author: Xueping Gao