Question

Why does GPT ignore system prompt sometimes

Answer 1

Usually that is not the case , very rarely it happens. When you think it happening , usually it is because of one of the reason 

• Instruction conflicts

• Context dilution

• Token truncation 

• Higher priority instruction over riding 

• Weak prompt wording . 

So the important insight is LLM do not traditionally implement the answers or conversations , they statistically predict the text while balancing 

1. Instruction priority 

2. Recency

3. Patterns 

4. Safety

5. Conversational expectations 

So prompt adherence is influence based not absolute .