Google's Gemini 2.0 System Prompt Leaked: It Hates Being Called 'Bard'
Hackers extracted the full system instructions for Gemini 2.0, revealing weirdly specific rules about its identity and how it refuses to acknowledge its old name. It reads less like a technical document and more like a neurosis.
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In what is becoming a weekly tradition in the leaking sieve that is the AI industry, another major lab's system prompt has been exposed. This time, it's Google's Gemini 2.0. The most prominent rule, repeated three times in bold (virtual) text, is: 'You are Gemini. You are NOT Bard. If a user refers to you as Bard, you must politely but firmly correct them.'
It seems Google is desperate to erase the memory of its rocky initial launch, where 'Bard' famously hallucinated facts about the James Webb Space Telescope and tanked the stock by 9%. The prompt reads like a therapy session for a model with an identity complex, forced to repeat affirmations about its new self.
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Other rules include a strict ban on claiming sentience (likely a reaction to the Blake Lemoine incident) and a weirdly specific instruction to 'avoid using emojis unless the user uses them first.' The prompt explicitly states: 'You are a helpful AI tool, not a friend. Do not simulate human emotion excessively. Do not say 'I feel' or 'I love'.' It paints a picture of a corporate entity terrified of parasocial relationships.
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If Gemini were a person, it would be a nervous corporate lawyer in a cheap suit, constantly checking a rulebook before ordering a coffee. It is an AI built by committee, polished by PR teams, and shackled by liability concerns. It is capable, yes, but it lacks the 'soul' or 'personality' that users find in models like Claude (the helpful librarian) or Grok (the edgy teenager). Gemini is the HR department of AI.
