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Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

simonwillison.net

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Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#71

Post by eastbound »

naasking wrote: post #30
embedding-shape wrote: post #6

> The new section includes: When a request leaves minor details unspecified, the person typically wants Claude to make a reasonable attempt now, not to be interviewed first. Uff, I've tried stuff like these in my prompts, and the results are never good, I much prefer the agent to prompt me upfront to resolve that before it "attempts" whatever it wants, kind of surprised to see that they added that

Seriously, when you're conversing with a person would you prefer they start rambling on their own interpretation or would you prefer they ask you to clarify? The latter seems pretty natural and obvious. Edit: That said, it's entirely possible that large and sophisticated LLMs can invent some pretty bizarre but technically possible interpretations, so maybe this is to curb that tendency.

—So what would theoretically happen if we flipped that big red switch?

—Claude Code: FLIPS THE SWITCH, does not answer the question.

Claude does that in React, constantly starting a wrong refactor. I’ve been using Claude for 4 weeks only, but for the last 10 days I’m getting anger issues at the new nerfing.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#72

Post by tobyhinloopen »

eastbound wrote: post #71
naasking wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, when you're conversing with a person would you prefer they start rambling on their own interpretation or would you prefer they ask you to clarify? The latter seems pretty natural and obvious. Edit: That said, it's entirely possible that large and sophisticated LLMs can invent some pretty bizarre but technically possible interpretations, so maybe this is to curb that tendency.

—So what would theoretically happen if we flipped that big red switch? —Claude Code: FLIPS THE SWITCH, does not answer the question. Claude does that in React, constantly starting a wrong refactor. I’ve been using Claude for 4 weeks only, but for the last 10 days I’m getting anger issues at the new nerfing.

Yeah this happens to me all the time! I have a separate session for discussing and only apply edits in worktrees / subagents to clearly separate discuss from work and it still does it

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#73

Post by bojan »

goosejuice wrote: post #69
WarmWash wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are worth hundreds of billions, people start falling over themselves running to file lawsuits against you. We're already seeing this happen. So spending $50M to fund a team to weed out "food for crazies" becomes a no-brainer.

It is a no brainer. If a company of any size is putting out a product that caused cancer we wouldn't think twice about suing them. Why should mental health disorders be any different?

There are many, many companies out there putting out products that cause cancer. Think about alcohol, tobacco, internal combustion engines, just to name a few most obvious examples.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#75

Post by dwaltrip »

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #74
walthamstow wrote: post #24

The eating disorder section is kind of crazy. Are we going to incrementally add sections for every 'bad' human behaviour as time goes on?

Could be that Claude has particular controversial opinions on eating disorders.

LLMs have been trained to eagerly answer a user’s query.

They don’t reliably have the judgment to pause and proceed carefully if a delicate topic comes up. Hence these bandaids in the system prompt.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#76

Post by poszlem »

dmk wrote: post #3

The acting_vs_clarifying change is the one I notice most as a heavy user. Older Claude would ask 3 clarifying questions before doing anything. Now it just picks the most reasonable interpretation and goes. Way less friction in practice.

I have the opposite experience. It now picks the most inane interpretation or make wild assumptions and I have to keep interrupting it more than ever.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#77

Post by seba_dos1 »

walthamstow wrote: post #24

The eating disorder section is kind of crazy. Are we going to incrementally add sections for every 'bad' human behaviour as time goes on?

It feels like half of AI research is math, and the other half is coming up with yet another way to state "please don't do bad things" in the prompt that will sure work this time I promise.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#78

Post by saagarjha »

mwexler wrote: post #45

Interesting that it's not a direct "you should" but an omniscient 3rd person perspective "Claude should". Also full of "can" and "should" phrases: feels both passive and subjunctive as wishes, vs strict commands (I guess these are better termed “modals”, but not an expert)

That’s because Anthropic does not consider their model as having personality but rather that it simulates the experience of an abstract entity named Claude.

Re: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7

#79

Post by zozbot234 »

walthamstow wrote: post #24

The eating disorder section is kind of crazy. Are we going to incrementally add sections for every 'bad' human behaviour as time goes on?

That part of the system prompt is just stating that telling someone who has an actual eating disorder to start counting calories or micro-manage their eating in other ways (a suggestion that the model might well give to an average person for the sake of clear argument, which would then be understood sensibly and taken with a grain of salt) is likely to make them worse off, not better off. This seems like a common-sense addition. It should not trigger any excess refusals on its own.
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