11 Blog post: how important is the model spec if alignment fails?

3rd Dec 2025

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This is a linkpost for https://newsletter.forethought.org/p/how-important-is-the-model-spec-if

A model spec is a document that describes the intended behavior of an LLM, including rules that the model will follow, default behaviors, and guidance on how to navigate different trade-offs between high-level objectives for the model. Most thinking on model specs that I’m aware of focuses on specifying the desired behavior for a model that is mostly intent-aligned to the model spec. In this post, I discuss how a model spec might be important even if the developer fails to produce a system that is fully aligned with the model spec.

This post was created by Forethought.

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[-]Seth Herd2mo42

I took a look and I think this post is valuable and not just rehashing familiar ground. You discuss how alignment might fail moderately gracefully, and some of the insights there are new to me.

I suggest you put at least a little more of the link post here to make that apparent. Your intro does just provide definitions and doesn't give much of a hint about the value you offer. A bullet point list of some highlights is one idea.

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Blog post: how important is the model spec if alignment fails?

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