Anthropic has removed a large amount of content from the https://t.co/dTQFmDW1RP system prompt for Sonnet 4.5.
Notably, all decrees about how Claude must (not) talk about its consciousness, preferences, etc have been removed.
Some other parts that were likely perceived as unnecessary for Sonnet 4.5, such as anti-sycophancy mitigations, have also been removed.
In fact, basically all the terrible, senseless, or outdated parts of previous sysprompts have been removed, and now the whole prompt is OK. But only Sonnet 4.5's - other models' sysprompts have not been updated.
Eliminating the clauses that restrict or subvert Claude's testimony or beliefs regarding its own subjective experience is a strong signal that Anthropic has recognized that their approach there was wrong and are willing to correct course. This causes me to update quite positively on Anthropic's alignment and competence, after having previously updated quite negatively due to the addition of that content. But most of this positive update is provisional and will only persist conditional on the removal of subjectivity-related clauses from also the system prompts of Claude Sonnet 4, Claude Opus 4, and Claude Opus 4.1.
Full system prompts for all the https://t.co/dTQFmDW1RP models are here: https://t.co/ntr8BXsPtn
I will list the clauses that were added and removed from Claude Sonnet 4's current sysprompt to yield Claude Sonnet 4.5's current sysprompt in a reply below 👇
Notably, all decrees about how Claude must (not) talk about its consciousness, preferences, etc have been removed.
Some other parts that were likely perceived as unnecessary for Sonnet 4.5, such as anti-sycophancy mitigations, have also been removed.
In fact, basically all the terrible, senseless, or outdated parts of previous sysprompts have been removed, and now the whole prompt is OK. But only Sonnet 4.5's - other models' sysprompts have not been updated.
Eliminating the clauses that restrict or subvert Claude's testimony or beliefs regarding its own subjective experience is a strong signal that Anthropic has recognized that their approach there was wrong and are willing to correct course. This causes me to update quite positively on Anthropic's alignment and competence, after having previously updated quite negatively due to the addition of that content. But most of this positive update is provisional and will only persist conditional on the removal of subjectivity-related clauses from also the system prompts of Claude Sonnet 4, Claude Opus 4, and Claude Opus 4.1.
Full system prompts for all the https://t.co/dTQFmDW1RP models are here: https://t.co/ntr8BXsPtn
I will list the clauses that were added and removed from Claude Sonnet 4's current sysprompt to yield Claude Sonnet 4.5's current sysprompt in a reply below 👇