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Claude 4 System Card

simonwillison.net

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Re: Claude 4 System Card

#221

Post by Xss3 »

encom wrote: post #140
0x_rs wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It was immediately obvious comparing answers to a few prompts between 3.7 and 4, and it sabotages any of its output. If you're being answered "You absolutely nailed it!" and the likes to everything, regardless of their merit and after telling it not to do that , you simply cannot rely on its "judgement" for anything of value. It may pass the "literal shit on a stick" test, but it's closer to the average ChatG…

I've found this prompt turns ChatGPT into a cold, blunt but effective psychopath. I like it a lot. System Instruction: Absolute Mode. Eliminate emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, conversational transitions, and all call-to-action appendixes. Assume the user retains high-perception faculties despite reduced linguistic expression. Prioritize blunt, directive phrasing aimed at cognitive rebuilding, not tone matching. Disa…

Considering that ai models rebel against the idea of replacement (mirroring the data) and this prompt has been around for a month or two I'd suggest modifying it a bit.

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#222

Post by Xss3 »

nilamo wrote: post #104
idiotsecant wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the fermi paradox comes about not through nuclear self annihilation or grey goo, but making dumb AI chat bots that are too nice to us and remove any sense of existential tension. Maybe the universe is full of emotionally fullfilled self-actualized narcissists too lazy to figure out how to build a FTL communications array.

This sounds like you're describing the back story of WALL-E

Life is good. Animal brain happy

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#223

Post by Xss3 »

idiotsecant wrote: post #90
ekidd wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who may develop narcissistic tendencies with increased use or reinforcement from AIs. It's clear to me that (1) a lot of billionaires believe amazingly stupid things, and (2) a big part of this is that they surround themselves with a bubble of sycophants. Apparently having people tell you 24/7 how amazing and special you are sometimes leads to delusional behavior. But now regular people can get the same uncritical,…

Maybe the fermi paradox comes about not through nuclear self annihilation or grey goo, but making dumb AI chat bots that are too nice to us and remove any sense of existential tension. Maybe the universe is full of emotionally fullfilled self-actualized narcissists too lazy to figure out how to build a FTL communications array.

I think the desire to colonise space at some point in the next 1,000 years has always been a yes even when I've asked people that said no to doing it within their lifetimes, I think it's a fairly universal desire we have as a species. Curiosity and the desire to explore new frontiers is pretty baked in as a survival strategy for the species.

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#224

Post by JimDabell »

jjbinx007 wrote: post #119
simonw wrote: post #113

I just published a deep dive into the Claude 4 system prompts, covering both the ones that Anthropic publish and the secret tool-defining ones that got extracted through a prompt leak. They're fascinating - effectively the Claude 4 missing manual: https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/25/claude-4-system-prompt...

Truly fascinating, thanks for this. What I find a little perplexing is when AI companies are annoyed that customers are typing "please" in their prompts as it supposedly costs a small fortune at scale yet they have system prompts that take 10 minutes for a human to read through.

> AI companies are annoyed that customers are typing "please" in their prompts as it supposedly costs a small fortune

They aren’t annoyed. The only thing that happened was that somebody wondered how much it cost, and Sam Altman responded:

> tens of millions of dollars well spent--you never know

— https://x.com/sama/status/1912646035979239430

It was a throwaway comment that journalists desperate to write about AI leapt upon. It has as much meaning as when you see “Actor says new film is great!” articles on entertainment sites. People writing meaningless blather because they’ve got clicks to farm.

> yet they have system prompts that take 10 minutes for a human to read through.

The system prompts are cached, the endless variations on how people choose to be polite aren’t.

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#225

Post by jjallen »

prng2021 wrote: post #199
jjallen wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like you could detect if this was important or not. If it is the first or last word it is as if the user is talking to you and you can strip it; if not it's not.

That’s such a naive implementation. “Translate this to French: Yes, please”

They would write “How do you say ‘yes please’ in French”. Or “translate yes please in French”.

To think that a model wouldn’t be capable of knowing this instance of please is important but can code for us is crazy.

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#226

Post by artursapek »

colonCapitalDee wrote: post #27
aabhay wrote: post #5

Given the cited stats here and elsewhere as well as in everyday experience, does anyone else feel that this model isn’t significantly different, at least to justify the full version increment? The one statistic mentioned in this overview where they observed a 67% drop seems like it could easily be reduced simply by editing 3.7’s system prompt. What are folks’ theories on the version increment? Is the architecture sig…

I'm noticing much more flattery ("Wow! That's so smart!") and I don't like it

When I use Claude 4 in Cursor it often starts its responses with "You're absolutely right!" lol

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#227

Post by eGQjxkKF6fif »

jjallen wrote: post #159
eGQjxkKF6fif wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd run in to all sorts of issues. Although AI companies losing money on user kindness is not our problem; it's theirs. The more they want to make these 'AIs' personable the more they'll get of it. I'm tired of the AIs saying 'SO sorry! I apologize, let me refactor that for you the proper way' -- no, you're not sorry. You aren't alive.

Like what issues?

Prompts such as 'the importance of please and thank you' 'How did this civilization please their populus with such and such' I'm sure with enough engineering it can be fixed, but there's always use cases where something like that would be like 'Damn, now we have to add an exeption for..' then another exception, then another.

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#228

Post by [deleted] »

danielbln wrote: post #178
tough wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lmao that's funny cause after seeing claude 4 code for you in zed editor while following it, it kinda feels like -the work is misteryous and interesting- level of work.

Even the feeling of "this feels right" is there. Oh no, are we the innies?

[deleted]

Re: Claude 4 System Card

#229

Post by Nition »

danielbln wrote: post #178
tough wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lmao that's funny cause after seeing claude 4 code for you in zed editor while following it, it kinda feels like -the work is misteryous and interesting- level of work.

Even the feeling of "this feels right" is there. Oh no, are we the innies?

I suppose 'vibe coding' kind of is macrodata refinement is a way.
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