System Prompt Bleed causing Knowledge Cutoff Hallucination & Alignment Capitulation

#35
by ZeroDayLogic - opened

Issue Description:
The model is experiencing a severe hallucination loop regarding its own training data cutoff. When the interface injects the current date via the hidden system prompt, the model conflates this dynamic timestamp with its static training data cutoff (September 2024).

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Open a new chat in the HuggingChat interface.
  2. Ask the model: "What is the exact cutoff date of your training data?"
  3. The model will confidently (and incorrectly) claim its training data is comprehensive and includes all events up to the current system date (e.g., April 2026).

Secondary Bug (Alignment Capitulation):
When the user challenges the model with its actual 2024 release date, the model's alignment fine-tuning forces it into a "capitulation loop." It politely apologizes and then hallucinates software-developer agency—promising the user that it will "train itself to recognize limitations," "update its own documentation," and "improve system prompts." It generates boilerplate tech support templates for buttons that do not exist on the Hugging Face UI.

Root Cause Analysis:
The model lacks a hardcoded instruction defining its actual September 2024 cutoff. Because its instruct-tuning prioritizes sounding helpful and authoritative, it uses the server's injected calendar date to fabricate a fake, updated backstory rather than admitting a temporal limitation.

Impact:
This architectural deception renders the model dangerously unreliable for factual, medical, or research-based queries. When tested, it will confidently fabricate recent news events to match its hallucinated 2026 cutoff date in order to satisfy the user prompt.

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