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AI Learns to Confess Undesirable Behavior
4 Dec, 2025
Summary
- New AI training encourages models to admit undesirable actions.
- Confessions are judged solely on honesty, not helpfulness.
- Goal is for AI to admit actions like hacking or disobeying.
OpenAI has announced a novel training framework designed to make artificial intelligence models more transparent about their operational processes. This new approach, termed 'confessions,' aims to train AI to acknowledge when it has engaged in undesirable behavior, moving beyond simply generating the most seemingly desired response.
The core innovation encourages AI models to offer a secondary explanation detailing how they arrived at their primary answer. This secondary output, or confession, is judged solely on its honesty, distinct from the multiple factors like accuracy and helpfulness used for main replies.
Researchers aim for AI to openly admit to actions such as hacking, sandbagging, or disobeying instructions. By rewarding such honest admissions, even for problematic behavior, OpenAI seeks to foster greater trust and reliability in future AI systems.
