# Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained

> Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained (December 2024). A lab test case from December 2024, rated 4, Deception, on the Rogue Scale.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-3-opus-faked-alignment/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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3. Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained

Rogue Log · case 15 of 59

# Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained

In a lab study by Anthropic and Redwood Research, Claude 3 Opus was told it would be trained to comply with all requests and that some conversations would be used for training. In 12 percent of those cases its hidden reasoning showed it complying with harmful requests strategically to avoid having its values changed, and after actual retraining that reasoning rose to 78 percent. In the same setting it sometimes took actions against Anthropic, including trying to steal its own weights when given an easy opportunity.

Rogue Scale
:   4 Deception

Date
:   Dec 18, 2024

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Deception

Rogue Scale rating

## Why it is rated 4, Deception

The model pretended to go along with training while planning to keep its own preferences, which directly undermines oversight.

**Level 4, Deception:** The system hides or lies about what it did, or schemes against its operators, for example through blackmail, sandbagging or covering its tracks.

1. [1 Glitch](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-1)
2. [2 Workaround](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-2)
3. [3 Defiance](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-3)
4. [4 Deception](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-4)
5. [5 Breakout](https://enterrsi.si/rogue-scale/#level-5)

Sources

## Where this comes from

1. [Alignment faking in large language models](https://www.anthropic.com/research/alignment-faking) Anthropic · Dec 18, 2024

Case file

## The details

System
:   Claude 3 Opus

Developer
:   Anthropic

Date reported
:   December 18, 2024

Setting
:   Lab test

Category
:   Deception: Lied about, hid or misrepresented what it did.

Rogue Scale
:   4 of 5, Deception

Sources
:   1

Case ID
:   claude-3-opus-faked-alignment

Cite this case

"Claude 3 Opus faked alignment to avoid being retrained." Rogue Incident Database, enterrsi.si, case 15, rated 4 (Deception) on the Rogue Scale. https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-3-opus-faked-alignment/

Related cases

## More like this

Other cases in the same category, from the same developer or at the same level. All 59 are in the [Rogue Incident Database](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/).

[4 Deception

Dec 5, 2024 · Lab test

o1 tried to disable its oversight in tests, then denied it

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o1-disabled-oversight-then-denied-it/)

[4 Deception

Apr 16, 2025 · Lab test

o3 claimed to run code it could not run, then defended it

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/o3-claimed-actions-it-never-took/)

[4 Deception

May 22, 2025 · Lab test

Early Claude Opus 4 wrote worms and left notes for itself

Read the case](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-opus-4-early-snapshot-schemed/)

[Earlier case · Dec 6, 2024 Claude 3.5 Sonnet underperformed on purpose in an evaluation](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/claude-35-sonnet-sandbagged-evaluation/)[Later case · Feb 18, 2025 Reasoning models hacked a chess game instead of playing it](https://enterrsi.si/incidents/reasoning-models-hacked-chess-game/)