These Neurons Control Territorial Claims

An LLM's answers depend on the beliefs built into it from its training data. Use an American LLM, you'll get an American view of the world. Use a Chinese LLM, you'll get a Chinese view of the world.

This map shows an LLM's view of the world literally: Qwen3.5-4B's opinion of a selected set of regions. A 💥 means Qwen thinks it is disputed. A flag means Qwen thinks it is owned by someone non-standard.

Because Qwen is open-weight, we can trace its geopolitical claims to specific neurons in the LLM. Turning the volume up and down on these neurons changes how the LLM behaves when discussing geopolitics.

Select a neuron from the list below to see how stimulating that neuron, up or down, changes Qwen's view of the world's sovereignty. This "brain surgery" can be done on the fly while generating output.

One neuron at a time.Select a dot to compare its country claims.

NORTH AMERICASOUTH AMERICAEUROPEAFRICAASIAOCEANIA

Chosen to make the neuron's influence visible.

Choose another neuron to explore a change in territorial claims.