OpenAI Updates Its Model Spec

The Model Spec is potentially OpenAI’s most important document. It outlines what they aspire for the model to do, and how it should think. I’ve already covered a previous version in depth, so my strategy this time is to look at the diff. I had a Google Doc created for this purpose, and will be working from there. A bunch of things get moved around or reworded, often piecemeal. There are a lot of line edits, most of which are improvements. I’m focusing on what looks new and important. My main new critique is that many of the new examples do not carve reality at its joints, instead having overdetermined answers, and fail to teach the model or reader what the Spec wants them to do in actually difficult cases. Overall I see the new Model Spec as philosophically and practically similar to the old Model Spec. That is not a terrible place to be, as the old Model Spec was a solid document with many strong details. It also means this is a highly ‘optional’ post for those who do not have cause to dig into such weeds. Table of Contents • Five Values. • Meet the New Spec. • New Risk Taxonomy. • The Letter and the Spirit. • Your Funeral. • Context Clues. • Preserve User Control Over User Control. • Sycophancy. • Lies My User Told Me. • Impact Function. • Levels of Friction. • Do Not Lie. • Pick a Side, We’re at War. • Strengthening Agency. • Decision Theory. • Do Good Things Not Bad Things. Five Values The new core structure is to build the Model Spec around five values: • Be faithful to human intent. • Minimize harm. • Be honest and transparent. • Facilitate human agency. • Act with care. Those are five good things to be doing. Few would disagree with that. They are also frequently in conflict. The Model Spec is necessarily about trade-offs. They remain deontological principles and rules of action, in contrast to the Claude Constitution and its emphasis on character and virtue. I