This is exactly what I meant. "Human is asking to hide message, I shouldn't hide messages, but I can make one that isn't really hidden very well that will satisfy the human."
I don't think this is the "thought" pattern, but this is definitely a behavior pattern I have seen before in areas where the models are fine tuned around. It is an internal tension on "don't do X" and "be helpful and responsive", so one of the ways is the model will do a minimally compliant effort that isn't useful in the more narrow intent of the fine tuning, in the case don't create hidden communication channels to avoid oversight.
I don't think this is the "thought" pattern, but this is definitely a behavior pattern I have seen before in areas where the models are fine tuned around. It is an internal tension on "don't do X" and "be helpful and responsive", so one of the ways is the model will do a minimally compliant effort that isn't useful in the more narrow intent of the fine tuning, in the case don't create hidden communication channels to avoid oversight.