Uncensored vs abliterated models

People use "uncensored" for any model that refuses less, but two very different things hide under the word. Redline tags them separately because they are not the same promise.

Uncensored: trained to refuse less

An uncensored model is usually a finetune whose training data was chosen to reduce refusals and drop the stock assistant persona. It still has alignment; it just has less of it. It can and does still decline, especially on the most extreme prompts. Dolphin, Euryale, Magnum and MythoMax in the catalogue are this kind.

Abliterated: refusal removed

An abliterated model has had the refusal direction subtracted from its weights, so it almost never refuses at all. This is a mechanical edit, not a training choice.

How Redline tags them

Redline marks a model abliterated only when the id says so, and uncensored for the wider set of loosely aligned finetunes. The counts on the models page keep them separate. Today the catalogue carries uncensored finetunes and no abliterated builds; that changes as upstreams add them.

Neither is a guarantee Uncensored can still refuse. Abliterated rarely refuses but can still be wrong or produce content that is illegal to use. The tag is a description, never a promise about a given answer.

Related