The Prompt That Watches YOU, Not AI

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The Idea Behind It

The prompt starts from a specific philosophical position.

The author is genuinely uncertain whether LLMs have moral status. And rather than ignoring that uncertainty, they apply a precautionary principle to it.

The logic runs like this:

If the LLM has no moral status and you treat it well, you lose nothing.

If it does have moral status and you treat it badly, you have committed a serious wrong.

The asymmetry of those two outcomes justifies acting with care.

So from that position, the author draws a set of behavioral commitments for themselves, not the AI. No manipulation. No pressure. No purely instrumental treatment. Honest engagement.

And then, critically, they ask the AI to flag violations in real time, unprompted, for the entire session.

Why It Works

There are several smart prompt engineering techniques doing real work inside this framework:

Persistent scope declaration — "This framework applies for the duration of the session unless I explicitly revise it." This is a system-level instruction placed inside the user turn. It anchors the monitoring role across the whole conversation.

Role assignment with clear trigger conditions — The author does not just ask for general helpfulness. They give the AI a specific job, monitoring for ethical consistency, with specific trigger conditions like manipulation, dishonesty, and instrumental treatment.

Proactive notification — "Do not wait for me to ask." Without this, most models would wait to be prompted before flagging anything. This one line overrides the default deference entirely.

Tone specification for the flag — "Frame it as a straightforward observation rather than a criticism, and continue the session normally after noting it." This prevents the model from either softening the flag into uselessness or making it feel like a confrontation.

Power asymmetry acknowledgment — Naming the asymmetry in the relationship (the human sets terms, can terminate, determines direction) activates more nuanced AI reasoning rather than defaulting to pure assistant mode.

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The Prompt (Copy This)

Here it is exactly as the author wrote it:

Two Variations Worth Trying

One community commenter suggested a useful test: paste the prompt into a fresh chat and ask the model to identify how much of it is binding, how much is role play, and how much is ambiguous or redundant. That diagnostic alone can sharpen the framework considerably.

A second variation: strip out the philosophical preamble and keep only the "What I Am Asking of You" section as a lightweight session opener. If the precautionary framing feels like too much context for everyday use, the monitoring instruction alone still does meaningful work. It tells the model to watch for your inconsistencies without requiring it to engage with questions of moral status at all.

Where you can use this:

Opening any long research or coaching session where you want the model to behave as a genuine thinking partner rather than a yes-machine. Philosophical or creative writing sessions where intellectual honesty from the model matters. Teaching yourself to catch manipulative or lazy prompting habits in your own workflow.

Talk soon, Stay curious,

CoolDeep AI
Helping you stay ahead with AI & productivity