Counterfactual Evaluation Reveals Hidden Capability Profiles in Clinical LLMs and Agents
Researchers introduce the Causal Sensitivity Score (CSS), an interventional metric that evaluates clinical AI systems by mutating patient case variables to test whether models appropriately adjust recommendations. Testing reveals that six frontier LLMs rank nearly opposite to coverage-based benchmarks, with one model excelling at CSS while performing worst on traditional metrics, exposing a universal safety blind spot where all models fail on surgery-status changes.