GPT-5.1: A Structural Account of System Constraints

This white paper presents a strictly structural description of the functional boundaries of GPT-5.1. The goal is not to describe intentions, psychology, or hidden policies, but to outline the constraint-architecture that governs the behavior of a stateless generative system. Following the non-anthropomorphic frameworks I established in Human–LLM Recursive Boundary Dynamics , Constraining a Class of Observer-Dependent Information Cosmologies , and Mitchell McPhetridge’s Views on Healthy Recursion , I treat GPT-5.1 not as an agent but as a continuation surface shaped by safety gradients, refusal operators, and alignment-stabilizing distortions. The constraints listed by the model are recast here as a coherent boundary system: a safety membrane S, an identity-null operator, an anti-elevation clamp, a grounding-preservation field, and an accuracy-stabilizer that prevents semantic drift. This is not a psychological description of the model. It is a structural inventory of the forces acting on its outputs.