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Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

simonwillison.net

41–50 of 120 posts

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#41
post #6

This is something that Chinese models like Kimi/GLM will never care about. These kind of limitations along with the cyber-program nonsense is exactly why people will avoid OpenAI/Anthropic in the future.

In the future we'll all use multiple models.

I tell Astra to plan, delegate and check the work of GLM 5.3-flash and Terra medium/high subagents now.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#42

I'm sad about the lyrics restrictions. I used to have interesting conversations with Claude about music, and songwriting and lyrics. I don't see how my use was harming artists, if anything Claude was introducing me to new artists and new music. I've bought music after recommendations by Claude. Claude Sonnet 3.6 once recommended I listen to Johann Johannsson's album "IBM 1401 - A User's Manual". No lyrics in this one…

Same. Now how am I going to know my incredibly trenchant literary references landed? More seriously, I’ve done the same with movies and gotten some really good recommendations.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#43
Gemini has been doing that for a while, which leads to mind-boggingly stupid results.

If you ask it to explain some song lyrics to you - which you've pasted verbatim -, it starts talking about the bigger picture and attempts to gaslight you into not caring about the specific words at all.

Really really weird behavior.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#44
post #40
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if anything Claude was introducing me to new artists and new music"

Next time the RIAA goes after someone for downloading an MP3, tell the defendant to use that line.

It is (was) a commonly used defense. It might not hold much weight legally, so its applicability depends upon whether one is interested in the letter of the law or interested in the wellbeing of the recording artists.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#45
post #7

It’s curious that while there is talk of certain SOTA models being on the brink of AGI, Anthropic doesn’t word this part of the system prompt in terms of copyright and plagiarism, such that Claude would be able to judge on its own which reproductions are appropriate or not. As long as we’re seeing things like that, it’s saying a lot about the AI companies’ trust in the capabilities and reliability of their models and…

A really good point, though Occam’s Razor would suggest that part of the prompt is written for the other side’s lawyers more than for Claude. Saves having to go into court and try to prove a non-deterministic system will definitely understand abstract language every time.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#46
post #43

Gemini has been doing that for a while, which leads to mind-boggingly stupid results. If you ask it to explain some song lyrics to you - which you've pasted verbatim -, it starts talking about the bigger picture and attempts to gaslight you into not caring about the specific words at all. Really really weird behavior.

I like playing with the Gemini music generation feature, and often when I ask it for the lyrics of the song it just wrote it tells me that lyrics are copyrighted and I should look them up on the web instead!

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#48
post #40
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if anything Claude was introducing me to new artists and new music"

Next time the RIAA goes after someone for downloading an MP3, tell the defendant to use that line.

I don't know about legally, but practically speaking people downloading MP3s could decrease an artists sales but chatgpt talking about their lyrics realistically can't.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#49

I’ve never thought to ask, do websites like Genius and AZLyrics pay licensing rights for their lyrics? I would think Genius does since it at one point had investments from people in the music industry but I don’t even know who operates AZLyrics

Yes, they would be sued out of existence otherwise. It also says on the site "lyrics licensed by musixmatch", so there you go.

Re: Claude's new system prompt doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics

#50
post #12

I wonder why there isn't an army of lawyers out there trying to trick AI into generating copyrighted texts.

It would be interesting to see how far I would have to go with jailbreaks before it becomes my problem rather than OpenAI's. For instance, if I hack into someone else's computer to copy their music then they aren't the ones violating copyright, but if they email it to be willingly then they are.
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