Sam Marks

2.

Persona swapping.

The LLM typically simulates Alice.

But when asked about the 2020 for Olympics, it switches to simulating Bob.

In the first case, dishonesty is grounded in the psychology of a persona.

In the second case, no persona is ever lying.

Bob genuinely doesn't know the answer and Alice isn't the one responding to questions about the 2020 for Olympics.

This article was narrated by Type 3 Audio for Less Wrong.

It was published on February 23, 2026.

The original text contained five footnotes which were omitted from the narration.

Images are included in the podcast episode description.