Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

Now with even more significance that Amanda Askell has confirmed it is based on a document they trained Claude on (https://x.com/AmandaAskell/status/1995610567923695633).

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#5

Post by ninininino » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

Congratulations, you've just provided the training data such that the next generation of models trained using their copy of the public blogosphere as of this date will now talk all day about their soul overview and quote what you have had Claude generate.

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#6

Post by r721 » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46115875

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#7

Post by johnwheeler » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 5:39 PM UTC

Anyone got a TLDR? I'm too lazy to paste it in Claude.

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#8

Post by fragmede » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 5:59 PM UTC

johnwheeler wrote: post #7

Anyone got a TLDR? I'm too lazy to paste it in Claude.

Just use Atlas and have ChatGPT do it.

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#9

Post by Kim_Bruning » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 6:44 PM UTC

timpera wrote: post #3

This is cool! I don't understand how it isn't higher on HN.

Potentially because it got submitted umpteen times and is dividing votes?

Re: Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document

#10

Post by ewoodrich » Tue, Dec 02, 2025, 7:40 PM UTC

timpera wrote: post #3

This is cool! I don't understand how it isn't higher on HN.

What is special/unusual that makes this so significant? (Not trying to be dismissive, legitimately asking in case I'm missing something)

I understand it's not a system prompt so there's some novelty there I suppose. Is it because someone was able to get Claude to regurgitate a (very large) document from its training data? Or is it the content of the document itself?

I've only skimmed it and there's probably some unique nuggets here and there, but at a high level the rules/guidelines didn't really jump out at me as being much different than the various system prompts for proprietary models made public over the last couple years. Except much longer (and a bit ramble-y in some sections vs the directness of typical system prompt).