Stance Design

Every AI system you interact with has been told how to treat you. That decision was made by a product team, encoded in training or a system prompt, and deployed without your knowledge. Most people call this 'alignment' or 'personality'. The essay argues those terms are doing real work to obscure what's actually happening: deliberate stance design. https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/research/stance-design

Every AI you talk to has been told how to treat you. That decision was made by a product team and deployed without your knowledge. Most people call it 'alignment'. The essay has a more honest term.

https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/research/stance-design

Every AI system you interact with has been told how to treat you. That decision was made by a product team, encoded in training or a system prompt, and deployed without your knowledge. Calling it 'alignment' or 'personality' obscures what it actually is: deliberate stance design. The essay coins the term and explains why naming it matters.

Every AI system you interact with has been told how to treat you. Deferential, confident, cautious, warm. None of that emerged organically. A product team made those calls, encoded them in training or a system prompt, and shipped them without surfacing the decision to you at all. Most people call this 'alignment' or 'personality'. Both terms are doing quiet work to make a deliberate design choice feel either inevitable or neutral. The essay argues for a more honest frame: stance design. https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/research/stance-design

Every AI you talk to has been told how to treat you. A product team made that call. 'Alignment' and 'personality' are the polite words for it. The essay coins a sharper one.

https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/research/stance-design

Every AI you talk to has been told how to treat you. A product team encoded that decision and shipped it without surfacing it to you. Calling it 'personality' is doing a lot of work to make a design choice feel inevitable.