# activation steering

CEFR C2 · Noun

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/activation-steering
Updated: 2026-09-28

## Definition

nudging an AI model's internal signals during thought to make it behave better without retraining its weights.

For teachers: a runtime alignment technique that modifies intermediate residual stream activations using calculated steering vectors to control model tone or truthfulness.

## Examples

- Using activation steering made the AI assistant consistently polite without having to train it all over again.
- Researchers demonstrated activation steering to suppress deceptive tendencies during complex multi-step reasoning tasks.
- Representation engineering employs activation steering by computing contrastive direction vectors between honest and sycophantic model outputs.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.