What would it mean if assistants are privileged?

According to LessWrong, researchers studying language models are investigating whether the 'assistant' persona receives special treatment compared to other characters those models can adopt. Language models can role-play as Spider-Man, historical figures, or romantic partners, but the helpful assistant stands out. Recent work on training techniques like reinforcement learning suggests post-training concentrates models around that role, making it what researchers call a dominant persona. This distinction matters for fundamental questions about whether language models contain minds and what moral consideration they might deserve.

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