Control Illusion: The Failure of Instruction Hierarchies in Large Language Models

arXiv — cs.CLFriday, December 5, 2025 at 5:00:00 AM
  • Recent research highlights the limitations of hierarchical instruction schemes in large language models (LLMs), revealing that these models struggle with consistent instruction prioritization, even in simple cases. The study introduces a systematic evaluation framework to assess how effectively LLMs enforce these hierarchies, finding that the common separation of system and user prompts fails to create a reliable structure.
  • This development is significant as it challenges the effectiveness of current methodologies in deploying LLMs, which are increasingly relied upon for various applications. The inability of these models to prioritize instructions consistently raises concerns about their reliability and the potential for biases in their outputs.
  • The findings contribute to ongoing discussions about the alignment of human and machine communication, emphasizing the need for improved frameworks in prompt engineering and ethical considerations in LLM deployment. As the field evolves, addressing these challenges will be crucial for enhancing the performance and trustworthiness of AI systems.
— via World Pulse Now AI Editorial System

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