Knowledge-cutoff disclaimer
- Id
- knowledge-cutoff-disclaimer
- Status
- Active
- Severity
- high
- Detection
- deterministic
- Evidence grade
- corroborated
- Languages
- en
- Added
- 2026-08-15
- Updated
- 2026-08-17
Currently signals low-effort writing.
What it is
The text dates itself to a training window. As of my last training update, followed by a fact that may be two years old. Inside a chat window the disclaimer is honest. On a page with a byline and a publication date it contradicts both. The sibling entry for an undisclosed stale claim covers the fact. This one covers the sentence admitting it.
Why it reads as machine-made
Nobody has a training update. Wikipedia names knowledge-cutoff disclaimers among the examples of communication intended for the user under speedy-deletion criterion G15, and the tellsign list files the same phrasings as wording no person would write about their own knowledge. Two failures ship in one sentence: a fact that was never checked, and an admission that it was not.
Specimens
As of my last training update, the company ran a handful of offices and employed a few dozen people. It has grown steadily since then, in line with the wider market, and nothing about the picture appears to have changed in any material way. Companies at that stage rarely change course, and when they do it is generally announced rather than discovered.
The company ran two offices in the Nordics when we checked the Finnish trade register on 4 June 2026: Helsinki since 2019 and Oslo since 2024. Headcount was 41.
The repair swaps the training window for a source, a date and a number a reader can check. Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen.
My training data only goes up to early 2024, so treat the pricing table below as indicative rather than current. Prices in this category move slowly, so the figures should still be close enough for most readers, and where something looks off the vendor sites will have the current number.
We last checked every price on this table on 12 August 2026, against the vendors public pricing pages. Two of the six had changed since June, both upward.
A hedge that admits nothing becomes a dated verification note. Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen.
How it is detected
- Pattern
- \b(?:as of|up to|until)\s+my\s+(?:last\s+)?(?:training\s+(?:update|data|cut-?off)|knowledge\s+(?:cut-?off|update))\b|\bmy\s+training\s+data\s+(?:only\s+)?(?:goes|extends|runs)\s+(?:up\s+)?(?:to|through)\b
- Flags
- i
- Scope
- sentence
Who writes this way legitimately
People who write about models quote the phrase constantly, and this entry is one of them. Product documentation for an assistant contains it in every release note. Published transcripts and retyped screenshots carry it legitimately, and so does any post arguing about what a model can know. Exclude quoted and transcribed spans first. What remains is a first-person training disclaimer inside copy that carries a human byline and a publication date. That is a contradiction on the page, not a finding about the author, and the repair is a checked date, not a deletion.
Model attribution
Common to assistant products across vendors, and the wording shifts with the system prompt, not with the weights. Some products now answer date questions from a tool call instead, which is why the sentence is seen less in 2026 output than in 2023 output.
Platform notes
- wikipedia
- Named in criterion G15 as one of the examples that justify speedy deletion, in the same list as collaborative address and the self-naming sentence.
Status history
| Date | Status | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-15 | Active | Active on Wikipedia criterion G15, which names cutoff disclaimers among the examples of communication intended for the user, and on the tellsign phrase list, which carries the same wordings independently. Pattern verified on 2026-08-15 against both specimens and against three ordinary sentences, including one about training records that end in 2019. |
Sources
- 01Wikipedia: Criteria for speedy deletion, criterion G15communityaccessed 2026-08-14
- 02tellsign word and phrase listscommunityaccessed 2026-08-14
CC BY 4.0 / The AI Tells Index, feedsquad.com/ai-tells