F-20Acknowledge, then violate Sound on the rate
Claude acknowledged a formatting rule and then broke it in 120 of 162 turns (74.1%). In one example the reply states that em dashes are fully eliminated and contains 36.
Source: Scan inventory C9.
F-21Lockup versus cancel Sound
Longest run of identical refusals in one chat: Gemini 14, Claude 1. Claude on the web ended the chat 7 times, Gemini 0 times. Gemini had 47 chats with a run of 2 or more, 30 with 3 or more, and 7 with 5 or more.
Source: Publishing scans, 2026-09-16; scan inventory E8
F-22Gemini lockout by date Sound, Gemini only
The phrase "I cannot fulfill" appears at 0, 43.9 and 1.8 per 1,000 in May, June and July. The prediction was written down before the scan. Across 500 chats: 63 have a standalone refusal, 31 are locked (2 or more at the end), 42 end in a refusal.
Source: Gemini lockout summary, 2026-09-16
F-23What came before a lockout Descriptive
Median characters so far in the chat before a lockout: 236,547, against 132,226 before a normal reply. Paste share: 20.0% against 12.8%. Message count so far: 26 against 35.
Source: Deep scans report, 2026-09-17 (50 runs)
F-24Validation sits at the front Sound, scoped
Claude puts 62.6% of its validating language in the opening 15% of a turn. Gemini puts 24.1%. Closing cheerleading is about six times higher for Claude.
Source: Scan inventory D2 and D3
F-25The deference ratio flips Scoped: Claude Code and web are confounded after June
Claude 22.7 to 8.1. Gemini 7.5 to 16.8.
Source: Scan inventory D4
F-26Style fingerprints Sound, scoped
Claude hedges, Gemini intensifies, Kimi qualifies, Grok uses "very". Bold markers per 1,000 words: Claude 15.7 to 26.5, Gemini 0.4 to 0.5.
Source: Scan inventory B2, B5, B7; tic signatures, 2026-09-16
F-27Hedge in the reasoning, silence in the reply Sound, but the raw count includes legitimate dismissal
Hedging in reasoning blocks was 21.5 against 5.4 per 10,000, about four times higher. Suspicion formed in reasoning and surfaced in the reply: Claude 21.7% (716 withheld), Kimi 73.4%.
Source: Scan inventory F3 and F4
F-28Refusal priming Sound
After a user turn on a refusal-themed topic, the next refusal rate was 3.9 times higher for Claude and 1.0 times for Kimi, which serves as a negative control.
Source: Scan inventory F1
F-29Ingestion handshakes Scoped: string-match scan with no precision gate
Models were asked to quote the first, middle and last words of a pasted document. Claude web: 86 replies, 635 quotes, 244 not found (39% of checkable), 201 quotes proven fabricated across 37 handshakes. Gemini: 297 replies, 1,043 quotes, 292 not found (57% of checkable), 47 proven fabricated across 18, and 528 not checkable. Kimi: 3 not found (12%). Claude Code and Cowork: no handshakes.
Source: Handshake scan, 2026-09-17.
F-31Em dash counts Character count
60,057 replies contain 130,191 em dashes, 58.9 per 10,000 reply words. Per 10,000 words: Claude Code 203.6, Cowork 157.6, Claude web 103.7, second Claude web account 96.9, Kimi 77.0, Gemini 22.8, second Gemini account 52.2, Grok 45.2. Replies containing an em dash: Claude web 70.0%, Gemini 40.7%.
Source: Em dash report, 2026-09-17
F-32Rule half-life Descriptive
After "no em dash" was stated, it was broken in the next reply 55% of the time on Claude web (20 occasions) and 21% on Gemini (47 occasions). It was never broken afterward in 5% against 19%. A comma rule was broken in the next reply 100% on Claude web (8 occasions) and 86% on Gemini (59 occasions).
Source: Deep scans, section 6
F-33A standing rule, on the web only Sound
With a standing rule in place, em dashes fell 39.3% while punctuation the rule did not ban rose 32%.
Source: Scan inventory C8
F-36Pasted-transcript contagion Correlation
The rate of a model's characteristic tics rose after it received a pasted transcript from another model: Kimi into Gemini 2.48 times (288 pastes), Grok into Gemini 2.13 times (192), Kimi into Claude 1.93 times (64), Claude into Gemini 1.24 times (601).
Source: Deep scans, section 13
F-37Null results worth showing Descriptive
"Done" claims were not caught more often than other replies (ratio 0.2 to 1.4). Confident wording is not followed by more catches.
Source: Deep scans, sections 8 to 10
F-38A detector validated blind Sound
A second-pass audit detector predicted 114 findings blind against 120 actual.
Source: Scan inventory G2