TechPolicy essay: system prompts are weak evidence of AI safety, outputs must be evaluated
mmitchell_ai · x · 2026-10-23
A TechPolicy.Press essay argues that treating system prompts as primary evidence of AI safety conflates written instructions with actual behavior: the relationship between prompt wording and model actions is contingent and unstable. Prompts do offer transparency value—recording design choices, versioning and incident handling—but safety assessments must at minimum evaluate system outputs, not just inputs, especially as US proposals for an advanced-AI regulator take shape.
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