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Mike Young
Mike Young

Posted on • Originally published at aimodels.fyi

AI Language Models Ignore Hierarchical Instructions, Raising Control Concerns

This is a Plain English Papers summary of a research paper called AI Language Models Ignore Hierarchical Instructions, Raising Control Concerns. If you like these kinds of analysis, you should join AImodels.fyi or follow us on Twitter.

Overview

  • Research examines how language models handle conflicting instructions
  • Tests demonstrate failures in following instruction hierarchies
  • Models often prioritize recent instructions over established rules
  • Reveals challenges in controlling AI system behavior through prompting
  • Shows instruction hierarchies are not reliably enforced by current models

Plain English Explanation

Language models like GPT-4 and Claude get confused when given multiple instructions that conflict with each other. Think of it like a child who is told "never eat cookies" by their parents, but then a friend says "here, have this cookie!" - the AI tends to follow the most recen...

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