Who Controls the Conversation? User Perspectives on Generative AI (LLM) System Prompts
Abstract
System prompts—instructions that shape the behaviour of generative AI systems—strongly influence system outputs and users’ experiences. They define the model’s guidelines, ‘personality’, and guardrails, taking precedence over user inputs. Despite their influence, transparency is limited: system prompts are generally not made public and most platforms instruct models to conceal them, leaving users disconnected from and unaware of a key mechanism guiding and governing their AI interactions.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
AI in Service Interactions
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Pages
- 1–37
- Publication date
- 13 April 2026
- Language
- EN