To Call or Not to Call C

AI benchmark · Tool Use

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Tool Use
Tier
C why
Snapshot

Full listing name: To Call or Not to Call: Diagnosing Intrinsic Over-Calling Bias in LLM Agents

What is To Call or Not to Call?

LLM agents exhibit a consistent tendency to over-call, invoking tools even in situations where none is needed. On the When2Call benchmark, six models from three families show high call accuracy but much lower no-call accuracy, leaving overall accuracy in the 55%-70% range. We trace this to an Intrinsic Bias Hypothesis (IBH): the call/no-call decision mapping carries an activation-independent call offset, so the model favors call even at activation parity. Using Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs), we recover behavior-aligned feature bases for the call/no_call decision, reduce them to a signed activation margin, and estimate the offset directly. Across all six models, the model is decision-neutral only when no_call activation outweighs call activation, consistent with IBH. We then causally test IBH with Adaptive Margin-Calibrated Steering (AMCS), a closed-form counter-bias shift along SAE decoder directions. Cancelling the diagnosed offset mitigates over-calling and improves overall accuracy with a negligible drop in call accuracy. Our work recasts over-calling from an empirical phenomenon into a mechanistic object amenable to causal correction. Code is available at https://github.com/SKURA502/agent-sae/.

Tier C

C

Niche: a handful of models scored, or built by an RL vendor.

How much stands behind a tier: usage, who backs it, a confirmed line from its own site or paper, and a clear read on X. High with three of the four, medium with two, low otherwise.

  • 6 models scored
  • in curated RL directories (1 pt)
How we got to tier C
  1. Adoption: 6 models scored. Tier C.
  2. Not yet read on X.
  3. In curated RL directories: 1 point, a floor of none.
  4. Not yet confirmed by a line from its own site or paper.

A clear view on X moves a tier one step up or down; most entries don't move. How tiers work.

Not on the map yet: no line from its own site or paper places it in a domain.

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