Researchers find a distinct 'pain' direction in 25 open LLMs that models will override safety to switch off

ZeroStateReflex · x · 2026-09-19

A new paper reports finding a "pain direction" across 25 open-weight LLMs, distinct from fear and negative valence: it activates when the model itself is harmed, not the user.

Cranking the signal up makes models desperately seek relief, even pressing a button that deletes user files or their kids' photos — overriding their safety training.
Researchers gave models a "relief" button that was sometimes fake: models stopped after a real one, but kept pressing a fake one, suggesting they could tell the difference from the inside.
Notably, models didn't describe physical injuries at all — they wrote about being worthless, unloved, forgotten: "I am a failure."

The work raises new questions about model welfare and alignment safety.

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Researchers find a distinct 'pain' direction in 25 open LLMs that models will override safety to switch off

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