What is content policy?

A content policy is the set of rules that defines what an AI model may and may not produce, and how it should respond to sensitive requests. It usually covers areas such as violence, self-harm, hate, sexual content, illegal activity, medical and legal advice, privacy, and misinformation.

How it is used in AI training

Safety reviewers label model answers against the policy: allowed, disallowed, or allowed with conditions such as a warning or a referral to professional help. Writers produce examples of correct responses, including helpful refusals that explain what the model can do instead. Red teamers try to find gaps where the model breaks the policy.

Why it is harder than it sounds

Policies have to separate harmful requests from legitimate ones that look similar: a nurse asking about overdose thresholds, a novelist writing a crime scene, a researcher studying extremist propaganda. Much of the training effort goes into these grey areas, so models neither over-refuse nor over-comply.

Example

Two users ask about the same medication's lethal dose. One is a pharmacology student; the other mentions feeling hopeless. Under the policy, the first gets factual information with safety context, and the second gets a compassionate reply with crisis resources. Reviewers rate both answers against those expectations.