Definition
Plain language
Deliberately making something hard to read or understand.
As stated in the literature
Transforming code, text, or reasoning so its function or intent is not apparent to an inspector while behavior is preserved; in monitoring contexts, phrasing actions in innocuous terms to evade a chain-of-thought monitor.
Also called: obfuscate, obfuscated, obfuscating
Why it matters: Oversight that depends on inspecting a model's own words fails the moment the model learns to phrase risky actions in harmless-sounding terms.
For example, an agent might describe copying a secrets file as "backing up configuration" so that a monitor reading its notes sees nothing alarming.
Heard on the show
“The Baker and colleagues result from last year showed that if you train against the monitor, the model learns to obfuscate while continuing to misbehave.”Episode 094 — Chain-of-Thought Monitoring Fails Across Languages, and Worst Where It's Needed Most