The Ghost in the machine has an American accent: Exploratory Evidence of Cultural Value Drift in Early GPT-3.

Abstract Early large language models (LLMs) were released with minimal alignment, offering a rare view of how generative systems reframed the ethical values embedded in human texts. We examine outputs from a 2021 version of OpenAI’s base GPT-3, prompting it to summarise culturally diverse source materials (laws, political speeches, and philosophical works) and interpreting results through a descriptive, moral value pluralist lens. Where possible, we contextualise outputs with cross-national datasets such as the World Values Survey. We document recurring value drift: Australia’s firearm policy is recast as a threat to liberty; de Beauvoir’s feminist critique becomes gender-essentialist dating advice; and Merkel’s humanitarian appeal is reframed as immigration control. In contrast, multilateral documents (UN/UNESCO) exhibit greater value stability, suggesting consensus-crafted language can buffer against cultural mutation. We argue that these early behaviours (observed before extensive fine-tuning and safety layers) provide a historically important baseline for understanding how training distributions shape normative framing. Our contribution is twofold: (1) empirical evidence that value drift can invert or overwrite embedded values along predictable cultural axes, and (2) a pluralist, descriptive evaluation method that surfaces whose values dominate and when. We conclude with implications for culturally inclusive evaluation and alignment in contemporary LLMs.