OpenAI Updates Its Model Spec to Clarify How Models Should Behave in More Autonomous Work
We鈥檝e updated the Model Spec, our public description of how we want our models to behave. This revision makes clearer what we want from models as they take on more autonomous work in the world and become capable of helping us in new ways. 馃У
Context
The Model Spec is OpenAI's public rulebook for model behavior, so changes for agents that act on their own shape how ChatGPT and Codex make decisions without a person checking each step.
OpenAI's Model Spec is a public document describing how it wants its models to behave, including how they weigh instructions from OpenAI, developers and users. Jason Wolfe works on the Model Spec at OpenAI. Agents are models that carry out multi step tasks with tools.
Deep dive
Jason Wolfe of OpenAI said on Thursday that the company has updated the Model Spec, its public description of how it wants its models to behave. According to the post, the revision makes clearer what OpenAI wants from models as they take on more autonomous work in the world and become capable of helping in new ways.
The post opened a thread and linked to the updated document. The first post itself did not list specific changes, and we could not confirm the full set of revisions from other sources at the time of writing, so details of what changed should be checked against the Model Spec directly.
The Model Spec sets out a chain of command for instructions, rules the models must follow and defaults that users can change. Updates focused on autonomy typically address questions such as when an agent should stop and ask a person, how it handles instructions found inside web pages or files, and how it avoids actions with serious side effects.
The update lands the same day OpenAI published details of its frontier model monitoring, reflecting a broader push to set and enforce rules as its models gain more independence.
What to expect next
Watch for a summary of changes from OpenAI and for analysis from researchers comparing it with Anthropic's constitution and Google's policies. Agent behavior rules will matter more as Codex and ChatGPT agents take actions in real accounts. Look for whether OpenAI publishes evaluations showing how closely its models follow the updated spec. Changes to the spec often show up later as shifts in how ChatGPT handles requests.