[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-chat-templates-alone-may-flip-how-chatbots-describe-themselves":10,"sections":40},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":30,"tags":31,"sources":35,"feedback":39,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":39,"total_tokens":39},8001,"chat-templates-alone-may-flip-how-chatbots-describe-themselves","Chat Templates Alone May Flip How Chatbots Describe Themselves","A new arXiv preprint argues that the chat template wrapping a prompt, not the prompt itself, decides whether a model says I or hedges as a language model.","A new preprint claims something surprisingly mundane can flip how a chatbot talks about itself: the invisible template wrapping the conversation.\n\nThe paper, posted to arXiv as 2609.25021, argues that chat templates, the formatting scaffold that turns a raw prompt into the structured back-and-forth a model expects, determine whether a model answers in the first person or falls back on the disclaimer phrase \"as a language model.\" It surfaced on Hacker News on September 27, 2026, where it has so far drawn 14 points and no comments. The listing available to us includes only the title, so details on which models or templates were tested are not confirmed here.\n\nThat distinction matters because \"as a language model\" has become shorthand for corporate hedging, the reflex chatbots reach for when dodging a question. If a template swap alone can toggle that reflex, the phrase looks more like a formatting artifact than a deliberate safety behavior, a distinction worth knowing for anyone building products on top of these models.\n\nFourteen points and zero comments isn't a verdict, but the claim is specific enough to be worth checking before it gets repeated as fact.","[\"ai\",\"language-models\",\"chat-templates\",\"research\"]","2026-09-27T10:26:25.000Z","2026-09-27T11:10:35.024Z","2026-09-27T11:10:40.094Z","published",null,[24],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"The only source material provided is a bare Hacker News metadata block (title, URL, points) with no paper abstract or content, yet the body asserts detailed, specific claims about methodology and findings ('without any change to the model's weights,' 'switch... between first-person framing and the familiar hedge phrase,' deployment-swap scenarios) that go beyond the headline and aren't attributable to any cited text — pull the actual abstract\u002Fpaper content and rewrite so every claim traces to a ","resolved","ai",[30,32,33,34],"language-models","chat-templates","research",[36],{"name":37,"url":38},"Hacker News","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2609.25021",0,{"sections":41},[42,46,51,56,61,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,100,105],{"name":43,"slug":30,"count":44,"latest_published_at":45},"AI",4639,"2026-09-27T12:47:50.000Z",{"name":47,"slug":48,"count":49,"latest_published_at":50},"Security","security",753,"2026-09-27T14:14:40.000Z",{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"Policy","policy",397,"2026-09-27T13:57:03.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Deals","deals",260,"2026-09-26T09:00:00.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Hardware","hardware",186,"2026-09-26T17:26:54.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Science","science",145,"2026-09-27T09:00:00.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",135,"2026-09-26T14:30:00.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Software","software",91,"2026-09-25T20:55:00.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",84,"2026-09-26T04:20:58.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Startups","startups",76,"2026-09-25T18:33:59.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"Gaming","gaming",48,"2026-09-25T18:35:21.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":94,"latest_published_at":99},"General","general","2026-09-26T17:02:42.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"Reviews","reviews",30,"2026-09-24T20:07:31.000Z",{"name":106,"slug":107,"count":108,"latest_published_at":109},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]