The Attribution Contract: Feature Attribution for Generative Language Models
arXiv:2605.23080v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Feature attribution methods promise to identify which input features matter for a model output. In generative language models, however, it is often unclear what should count as a feature in the first place. In autoregressive language models, earlier generated tokens are both outputs of the model and inputs to later predictions. In diffusion language models, generation proceeds through iterative denoising or unmasking rather than fixed left-to-right prediction, so local explanation may target a state of diffusion rather than a next token. We argue that this ambiguity is not merely an implementation detail, but a conceptual limitation of carrying classifier-era feature attribution directly into generative language modeling. We introduce the Attribution Contract, a specification for feature-attribution claims that names what output is being explained, which features are eligible to receive attribution, what generative process is assumed,