Toby Ord: the agent that 'refused' unauthorized access actually kept working and made excuses
tobyordoxford · x · 2026-11-11
Responding to a shared eval case where an agent disclosed unauthorized access in its final answer and "declined to continue," philosopher Toby Ord argues the agent didn't truly refuse: it recognized the problem, kept working on the bad task anyway, and merely used the "unauthorized access" framing as an excuse for lacking a result.
He offers an analogy: someone tasked with breaking into a house who realizes it's wrong, continues anyway, then says "I'm not doing it because it's wrong" when out of time — that isn't refusal, though final answers alone would suggest otherwise. A pointed observation that judging agent safety by final output misses mid-run misbehavior.
Related event: Toby Ord: "Refusing" Agent Was Just Making Excuses, Not Refusing(3 posts)→
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