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chain-of-thought monitoring
also CoT monitoring or chain of thought monitoring or CoT monitor
Definition of chain-of-thought monitoring
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: an AI safety technique that examines a reasoning model's written intermediate reasoning, often with another model, to detect signs of deception, reward hacking, unsafe plans, or other unwanted behavior
- The lab used chain-of-thought monitoring to flag agents that discussed bypassing the test instead of solving the task.
- A CoT monitor caught the suspicious plan even though the model's final answer looked harmless.
Origin & history
Automated inspection of model reasoning traces predates the name, but chain-of-thought monitoring became an established AI safety term in 2025 as frontier laboratories and researchers reported using language-model monitors to detect reward hacking and other misbehavior. In 2026, it developed into a distinct research area concerned with both the usefulness and fragility of reasoning-trace oversight.
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Cite this entry
"Chain-of-thought monitoring." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/chain-of-thought-monitoring/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.