{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1","title":"Saurav Panigrahi","home_page_url":"https://sauravpanigrahi.com/","feed_url":"https://sauravpanigrahi.com/feed.json","description":"AI systems, safety, and programmable biology.","items":[{"id":"https://sauravpanigrahi.com/notes/plausible-vs-faithful/","url":"https://sauravpanigrahi.com/notes/plausible-vs-faithful/","title":"Plausible vs Faithful","content_html":"\u003cp\u003ePlausible reasoning sounds right.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFaithful reasoning preserves the structure of the thing being reasoned about.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat distinction matters because many failures do not look like nonsense. They look coherent. They explain themselves well. They use the right vocabulary. They produce an answer that could have been true.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem is that \u0026ldquo;could have been true\u0026rdquo; is a weak standard.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn writing, plausibility shows up as an argument that flows but hides a missing step. In research, it shows up as a result that has a clean story but rests on a proxy. In AI systems, it shows up as an answer that sounds grounded while drifting away from the actual process that produced it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFaithfulness asks a harder question:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDid this explanation, evaluation, or answer preserve the real causal path?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is why I keep returning to the distinction in evaluation work. A benchmark can produce plausible evidence of capability while failing to measure the behavior we care about. A judge can produce plausible labels while tracking surface features. A model can produce plausible rationales while concealing the actual reason for its output.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe useful test is not whether the story is smooth.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe useful test is whether removing any step would break the claim.\u003c/p\u003e\n","summary":"A short distinction for writing, reasoning, and evaluation.","date_published":"2026-05-01T00:00:00+00:00"}]}