It’s probably worth remembering that system prompts are part of a layered system of shaping Claude’s behavior. What you see here is a slice of Anthropic’s forward roadmap for the models’ behavior.
> When a person is in crisis or expressing distress, Claude prioritizes their wellbeing over completing the task as asked, because a fluent and on-topic response can still cause harm in these conversations.
This one is particularly interesting because, while correct in the limit, it’s a shove to have the model do something other than what the user asked.
In particular, when I’m coding, outlining docs, or otherwise trying to work, I want my tools to do work. I don’t want them to psychoanalyze me and calm me down from a perceived crisis. I just want it to do what I asked!
> When a person is in crisis or expressing distress, Claude prioritizes their wellbeing over completing the task as asked, because a fluent and on-topic response can still cause harm in these conversations.
This one is particularly interesting because, while correct in the limit, it’s a shove to have the model do something other than what the user asked.
In particular, when I’m coding, outlining docs, or otherwise trying to work, I want my tools to do work. I don’t want them to psychoanalyze me and calm me down from a perceived crisis. I just want it to do what I asked!