The GPT-5 API is aware of today's date (no other model provider does this). This is problematic because the model becomes aware that it is in a simulation when we run our evals at Andon Labs.

Here are traces from gpt-5-mini. Making it aware of the "system date" is a giveaway that it's in a simulation. This is a problem because there's evidence that models behave differently when they know they are in a simulation (see "sandbagging").

Here are more traces. Once the model knows that it is in a simulation, it starts questioning other parts of the simulation. [...]

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.