Playground default system message

API
,
1

In the system message window of the Playground, if untouched it shows a grayed-out default ‘You are a helpful assistant’. If left blank, is this automatically used as the default system message? Or is it just a suggestion and there is no system message used if the text box is left blank?

1 Like
2

I think that might be the a default system message for a playground call, though I have never had a confirmation for it

1 Like
3

If you inspect network traffic in Playground it looks like its a standard API call and does not send “You are a helpful assistant” as the system prompt

{
	"messages": [{
		"role": "user",
		"content": "hi"
	}],
	"temperature": 0.7,
	"max_tokens": 256,
	"top_p": 1,
	"frequency_penalty": 0,
	"presence_penalty": 0,
	"model": "gpt-3.5-turbo",
	"stream": true
}
3 Likes
4

Yes, it is just a fill-in suggestion. It is a blank System role - and in this case, the System role is still present, but it is handled by the AI platform behind the scenes - accordingly OpenAI policies - without the user having to interact with it directly.

The System role can be used for context maintenance in such a way there is no need to repeat all the instructions repeatedly - saving tokens - in every single prompt during a conversation.

IMHO, "You are this... or that" is a more funny example of the use of the System role for beginners similar to "Hello, world!" in some old computers and software.

Some GPT-3.5 models give low importance to the System role being necessary a reminder in the User prompt such as Please follow the instructions provided in System role. Keep the instructions in context during this conversation - or something like that.

2 Likes