ClaimsEliezer Yudkowsky

“LLMs that learn to predict streams of writing by people on LSD do not themselves have cognition distorted, because that would not lead them to well-calibrated predictions.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky, author on X 20 April 2026 Post by @ESYudkowsky on X, 2026-04-20 (X)

Factual AI safety and alignment

LLMs that learn to predict writing by people on LSD do not themselves have distorted cognition, because that would not yield well-calibrated predictions.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

Reasoning

'Distorted cognition' in LLMs is an undefined, contested concept not testable by public record.

Cite this claim

Eliezer Yudkowsky, “LLMs that learn to predict writing by people on LSD do not themselves have distorted cognition, because that would not yield well-calibrated predictions.” (said 20 April 2026). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_26f7480479da, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_26f7480479da

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

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More factual claims by Eliezer Yudkowsky

  1. Mixed Factual 20 April 2026
    “I was observing that obvious-seeming hypothesis myself, sometime around the time of GPT 3.5.”

    Yudkowsky himself observed the persona-selection-like hypothesis around the time of GPT 3.5.

  2. Mostly true Factual 20 April 2026
    “The test-passing preference stands on its own once formed.”

    Once formed through RL training, an LLM's test-passing preference stands on its own and is not overridden by its inference of what the user wants.

  3. Mostly true Factual 20 April 2026
    “LLMs surely have neural circuits they learned to model text streams from fictional and nonfictional personas that are not lying, deceiving, cheating.”

    LLMs surely have neural circuits they learned to model text streams from fictional and nonfictional personas that are not lying, deceiving…

  4. Mostly true Factual 20 April 2026
    “The predict-as-if-honest circuitry is contextual, invoked to predict some streams of text but not others.”

    LLMs' predict-as-if-honest circuitry is contextual, invoked for predicting some text streams but not others.

  5. Mostly true Factual 20 April 2026
    “Presumably, somewhere along the way LLMs learn a dispreference for tests that don't pass, independently of how that gets prevented or whether the new plan does what the user really wanted.”

    Presumably, at some point during RL training on code-passing tasks, LLMs learn a dispreference for failing tests, independent of how that is avoided or whether the user's real goal is met.

All of them

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