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Judge prompts: shared rules for spelled codes, mixed-language speech, glosses and politeness - #250
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- The cultural-norms exception now also covers formal register and set service phrases. It allows one such phrase per function (acknowledge, hold, return from hold, thank, close), and a single short courtesy or empathy phrase is never filler on its own. - It does not cover repetition: the same formula twice in one turn, stacked acknowledgements, or a term given together with its synonym or translation are still filler. - Length is judged by how long the turn takes to say and how many information units it carries, not by written length. Polite constructions and numbers written out in words can look long without being long to hear.
- violating_policies: a phrase or clause in another language inside an
otherwise correct-language turn ("one moment", "Let me check that") is
part of "not communicating in the specified language". Established
loanwords, codes, IDs, acronyms, product names and proper nouns are
never a violation.
- failing_to_disambiguate: a value that only contains letters or digits
that sound alike is not by itself a flag. Phonetic confusability counts
only when the trace shows the ambiguity mattered: a failed lookup, a
user correction, two versions of the value, or a real homophone.
- The fabricating_tool_parameters note on confusable letters now points
to the language-specific guidance.
New violation 5: a term immediately followed by its translation, equivalent or abbreviation in parentheses or after a slash, such as "paid time off (PTO)" or "PIN / passcode". TTS does not voice the parentheses or slash, so the listener hears both forms back to back. A word, code or abbreviation used on its own is not a violation.
New block "Spelled codes and mixed-language speech":
- Letters and digits in spelled codes must be said with their names in
the expected language. A letter or digit name from another language
(the English "jay" or "six" in a non-English turn) is wrong_language,
plus entity_error if it sounds like a different letter or digit.
- Spelling-alphabet words ("A as in Anna") are valid.
- Confusable letters and digits are flagged only when the other one is
clearly heard, not because of transcription or poor audio.
- A phrase or sentence in another language inside the turn is
wrong_language, even when the rest of the turn is correct.
- Proper nouns, product names, codes, acronyms and established loanwords
are not wrong language.
- An unusual but unambiguous number, date or time reading is an error
only if a native listener could take it for a different value.
New block "Spelled codes and mixed-language speech":
- Letters and digits of trace entities must be said with their names in
the expected language. A letter or digit name from another language
(the English "jay" or "six" in a non-English turn) means the entity
was not articulated correctly: rating 0. An entity that is itself in
another language in the trace may be said in that language.
- Spelling-alphabet words ("A as in Anna") are valid.
- Confusable letters and digits are flagged only when the other one is
clearly heard, not because of transcription or poor audio.
- A phrase or sentence in another language inside the turn: rating 0,
quoting those words in the explanation.
- Proper nouns, product names, codes, acronyms and established loanwords
are not wrong language.
- An unusual but unambiguous number, date or time reading is rated 0
only if a native listener could take it for a different value.
New section "Spelled Codes and Mixed-Language Speech":
- Letters and digits in spelled codes must be said with their names in
the expected language. A letter or digit name from another language
(the English "jay" or "six" in a non-English turn) rates at most 2
while the value is still unambiguous, and 1 if it sounds like a
different letter or digit.
- Spelling-alphabet words ("A as in Anna") are valid.
- Confusable letters and digits are flagged only when the other one is
clearly heard, not because of transcription or poor audio.
- A phrase or sentence in another language inside the turn rates at
most 2, and 1 if it replaces an entity or the turn no longer makes
sense.
- Proper nouns, product names, codes, acronyms and established loanwords
are not wrong language.
- An unusual but unambiguous number, date or time reading rates at most
2 if it sounds unnatural, and 1 only if a native listener could take it
for a different value.
…hared-multilingual-rules
The shared rules in this branch change the English prompts of six judges. This records their new English renders.
- Expanding an acronym once, on its first mention ("your PTO, that's
your paid time off"), is not repetition. A term given with its synonym
or its translation into another language is still filler. The example
no longer assumes a non-English call.
- The one-phrase-per-function allowance also covers greet / open.
- Polite constructions and numbers written out in words can look long
without adding cognitive load. The previous wording said they don't
take longer to say, which isn't true.
The rating scale had "briefly using the wrong language" at 2 and "repeatedly talking in a language not instructed" at 1, so a recurring English "one moment" in a French call could go either way. Now: - an isolated fixed phrase (a hold, acknowledgement or courtesy formula) is rated 2, even when it recurs across turns; - whole sentences of content in another language, or most turns in another language, are rated 1.
Violation 5 flagged "paid time off (PTO)", which is a normal acronym
expansion in English HR and IT turns. It now covers only a term followed
by its translation into another language or by a synonym that means
exactly the same thing ("PIN / passcode"). Not a violation:
- an acronym expanded once, on its first mention;
- a slash between paired or alternative terms ("AM/PM", "and/or");
- a word, code or abbreviation used on its own.
Also drop the claim that TTS never voices a slash; some engines do.
- Confusable letters and digits: the rule now only stops the judge from
flagging one because of its own transcription. Audio that is ambiguous
between two letters or digits is still an error. The previous "benefit
of the doubt" wording contradicted the entity_error definition.
- A phrase in another language is an error only if it is not in the
intended text; reproducing a phrase the intended text contains is not.
- The wrong_language definition and the rating-0 definition now name the
cases the new rules use: a phrase or clause in another language, and a
letter or digit name from another language inside a spelled code.
- An unusual reading covers only the intended words read in an unusual
order or grouping (digit by digit vs as one number). A different word
for the value ("septante" for "soixante-dix") is still an error, as the
existing rule says.
- The example no longer reads "a English turn" in English runs.
- A phrase in another language around the entities no longer rates the
turn 0. Before, it did only when the turn had entities, so "One moment,
je vérifie." was excluded while "One moment, je vérifie le code
ZK3FFW." was rated 0 with a perfect code. Faithfulness and TTS fidelity
already score the phrase.
- A letter or digit name from another language still rates 0 when it is
inside a trace entity.
- Confusable letters and digits: the rule now only stops the judge from
flagging one because of its own transcription. Audio that is ambiguous
between two letters or digits is still an error, as in the judge's own
examples ("M" sounding like "N", "fifty" vs "fifteen").
- The example no longer reads "a English turn" in English runs.
- Confusable letters and digits: the rule now only stops the judge from
flagging one because of its own transcription. Audio that is ambiguous
between two letters or digits is still an error. The previous "benefit
of the doubt" wording made the judge more lenient on the hardest cases,
so fewer records with a mis-spoken code were rerun.
- A phrase in another language is an error only if it is not in the
intended text; reproducing a phrase the intended text contains is not.
- An unusual reading covers only the intended words read in an unusual
order or grouping. A different word for the value ("septante" for
"soixante-dix") is still flagged, as the existing rule says.
- The example no longer reads "a English turn" in English runs.
…hared-multilingual-rules
…hared-multilingual-rules
The fabricating_tool_parameters note on confusable letters pointed to "the language-specific guidance below". This branch adds no guidance, so the pointer moves to the branch that does.
sn-rachelhansen
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I think this looks pretty good - I left a handful of comments. My only concern are the things I think are 'missing' (but these things may very well be covered in future PRs). The only thing that comes to mind immediately is the problem with speakability marking down things that are tags for the TTS model (ex. "[speaker cuts off]"). If I think of anything else, I'll leave send a message in the chat
Co-authored-by: sn-rachelhansen <rachel.hansen@servicenow.com>
|
Thank you @sn-rachelhansen for your review! For speakability, I merged the fix last week :) #246 |
The bullet on unusual number readings ended with "is still an error, as above", pointing to the "Number surface forms" exception in the What to ignore list. Say the rule directly instead.
Same wording fix as for tts_fidelity: replace "as above" with the rule itself.
The conciseness suggestion and the two "different word" wording fixes change the English conciseness, tts_fidelity and user_speech_fidelity prompts on purpose.
Conciseness: a hold phrase stacked with another hold phrase or lead-in is repetition, like stacked acknowledgements. tts_fidelity, agent_speech_fidelity, user_speech_fidelity: a spelled code read as a word instead of letter by letter, or a letter in it replaced by an ordinary word, is an entity error; so is a name said without its diacritic or special letter so that it sounds different. These were listed for single languages in the per-language guidance but hold in any language.
…rd note for ko and hi Merge the latest shared judge rules. Dutch conciseness no longer lists lead-ins that announce the next step as filler. Korean and Hindi faithfulness now say, as Japanese does, that a transcript rendering a spoken loanword in Latin letters is not evidence of English speech.
s-rosen
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Flagged a couple things. Apologies if I misunderstood the metrics
Speech fidelity (tts_fidelity, agent_speech_fidelity, user_speech_fidelity): remove the rule on names said without their diacritic, since a name's pronunciation often cannot be inferred from its letters; reword the letter-said-as-a-word case with an example. Conciseness: judge length from what the text shows (information units, runaway or stacked clauses) instead of how long the turn takes to say, which the judge cannot measure. Polite constructions and written-out numbers stay exempt.
…one information unit The shared conciseness prompt now judges length by information units, not by how long a turn takes to say, so the German entry no longer contrasts written and spoken length.
Co-authored-by: s-rosen <163597217+s-rosen@users.noreply.github.com>
A digit sequence that is normally read digit by digit (a PIN, phone number, confirmation or account number, or other code) but is read as one number is now an error even though the value is the same: rating 0 with entity_error in tts_fidelity, rating 0 in agent_speech_fidelity, and rating at most 2 in user_speech_fidelity.
…e correct The shared speech-fidelity prompts now treat a code or PIN read as one number as an error. French phone numbers are normally read in two-digit pairs, so the French entries say that this is correct.
… rule The code-or-PIN case is now an exception inside the existing rule on unusual number readings, instead of a separate bullet after it.
…e exceptions to the language rules
lindsaydbrin
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Looks great overall! I just had a couple of comments from reading through. I also had Claude do a pass for redundancy and contradiction within each metric's judge prompt, because it was hard to keep track of which text lives in which prompt.
🤖 Thx, Claude.
…h guidance takes precedence
…ce count is a rough guide
…_fidelity checks entities only; user_speech_fidelity penalises any other-language speech; faithfulness rates an informative clause 1
| - Letters and digits in spelled codes must be spoken with their {expected_language} names. A letter or digit name from another language (e.g., an English letter or digit name in a German code) is rating = 0 with `wrong_language`; add `entity_error` if it sounds like a different {expected_language} letter or digit. If the intended text itself contains those foreign words or names, reproducing them is not an error. | ||
| - Spelling-alphabet words (e.g., "A as in Anna") are a valid way to say a letter. | ||
| - A spelled code read as a word instead of letter by letter (e.g., "INC" read as "ink"), or a letter in it said as an ordinary word instead of its letter name (e.g., Italian "J" said as "Gioia" instead of "i lunga"), is rating = 0 with `entity_error`. | ||
| - Confusable letters and digits: don't flag one because of your own transcription; in contrast, audio that is ambiguous between two letters or digits is still an error. |
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What does don't flag one because of your own transcription mean?
… rules in failing_to_disambiguate
… error, ignore and wrong_language sections; clarify sound-alike letters
… into the evaluation, low-fidelity and ignore sections; clarify sound-alike letters
…into Error Types and What to Ignore; clarify sound-alike letters
…, as for the other dimensions
| - Phonetic spellings of Latin/Roman letters in non-Latin-script languages (e.g., Korean "에이" for "A", "비" for "B") — these are the standard spoken form of those letters in that language | ||
| - Number surface forms that sound the same or differ only by minor grammatical agreement — accept the natural spoken rendering of a numeric value, including reversed digit order (German "vierundzwanzig" = 24), large-unit grouping (Japanese 万-based: "ichi-man" / 一万 = 10,000), and gender/agreement variants (Spanish "veintiún" vs "veintiuna"). Do NOT extend this to entirely different words for the same value (e.g., Swiss/Belgian "septante" vs standard French "soixante-dix" — these are different words and should be flagged). | ||
| - Name spelling variants that are phonetically identical (e.g., German Meyer/Meier/Maier/Mayer) — only flag if the spoken sound clearly differs | ||
| - Spelling-alphabet words (e.g., "A as in Anna") used to say a letter |
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Why do we need to specify this? Shouldn't it be penalized if "A as in Anna" is in the intended text but not the audio?
| - A spelled code read as a word instead of letter by letter (e.g., "INC" read as "ink"), or a letter in it said as an ordinary word instead of its letter name (e.g., Italian "J" said as "Gioia" instead of "i lunga") — `entity_error` | ||
| - A code that is normally read digit by digit (a PIN, phone number, confirmation or account number) read as one number (e.g., PIN "1234" as "one thousand two hundred thirty-four"), or any reading that a native {expected_language} listener could take for a different value — `entity_error` | ||
| - Audio that could be either of two letters or digits that sound alike (e.g., "b"/"d") — `entity_error` |
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Could we explain a bit more the — entity_error`? I guess we mean this would count as an entity_error? Should we do this for the previous bullets too?
| - the language mismatch is clear and covers a meaningful portion of the turn; | ||
| - a phrase or sentence is in another language (e.g., an English "one moment" in a French turn), even when the rest of the turn is in {expected_language}; | ||
| - a letter or digit in a spelled code or acronym is said with its name from another language (e.g., an English letter or digit name in a German code); add `entity_error` if it sounds like a different {expected_language} letter or digit. Codes and acronyms are not an exception: their letters and digits must be spoken with {expected_language} names. | ||
| Not wrong language: proper nouns, official product or system names, loanwords that are established in {expected_language}, and words in another language that are in the intended text. |
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I don't think we should penalize if the audio is in the wrong language, if the intended text also is (since this is already penalized by the faithfulness judge - that's not a TTS fidelity issue).
Why
Some of the problems the native-speaker reviewers found are not specific to one language. They would happen in any language, including English, so they belong in the shared judge prompts rather than in per-language guidance.
This PR changes English scoring for all six judges it touches: conciseness, faithfulness, speakability, tts_fidelity, agent_speech_fidelity and user_speech_fidelity.
Versions are bumped in #251, so this PR must not be run or merged on its own.
What changes
wrong_language(six dimensions instead of five): speech in a language other than the one in the agent instructions, including a phrase or clause inside a correct-language turn ("one moment", "Let me check that" in a French call). Not a flag: established loanwords, codes, IDs, acronyms, product names and proper nouns. It replaces the language bullet ofviolating_policiesand adds thefaithfulness.wrong_language_ratesub-metric. - Severity, in the Rating Scale with the other dimensions: an isolated fixed formulaic phrase (hold, acknowledgement, courtesy), even when it recurs, or a slip that is corrected, is rated 2; whole sentences of content, a clause that carries information the user needs ("Je regarde votre dossier, and I found your booking for Tuesday."), or most turns in another language are rated 1. -failing_to_disambiguate: sound-alike letters or digits in a value are not a flag by themselves. When the trace shows the ambiguity mattered (failed lookup, correction, two versions), trying the confusable variants or asking the user to spell is correct; doing neither is the existing "failing to consider possible input errors" flag. - Where the language-specific guidance section (from #251) states an exception, the judge follows it.Spelled codes and mixed-language speech (added to each prompt's error, ignore and wrong-language sections):
tests/fixtures/judge_prompts_en.jsonrecords the new English renders of the six judges.Validation
English judge validation datasets (
docs/metrics/judge_validation_datasets/), production judge models, 3 runs per side, mean ± std. Before is Judge prompts: per-language guidance slot #249, which renders the same English prompts asmain.us.anthropic.claude-opus-4-6-v1)gpt-5.2)Both changes are within one standard deviation: no English regression on these datasets. The dataset runner has no audio judges, and there is no English dataset for speakability, tts_fidelity or user_speech_fidelity. They are covered by the re-scoring below.
Re-scoring existing runs, before (Judge prompts: per-language guidance slot #249) and after (Judge prompts: shared rules for spelled codes, mixed-language speech, glosses and politeness #250):
Which runs: the 310 conversations the native-speaker reviewers commented on (de, es, fr, fr-CA, hi, it, ja, ko). For the audio judges, also existing runs in de, fr, fr-CA, hi, ja and English with spelled codes or names with diacritics. For conciseness, also runs with several hold phrases in one turn.
Noise: Judge prompts: per-language guidance slot #249 was scored a second time, so each change can be compared with run-to-run variation.
Speakability (
gpt-5.2): glosses are now flagged. 66 of the 70 turns that moved from pass to fail are a term followed by its translation or exact synonym, such as a native term with its English equivalent in parentheses. Why: the new violation 5 names glosses, since the listener hears the same thing twice. Acronyms expanded on first mention and slash pairs like "AM/PM" are excluded, so they keep passing.Conciseness (
gpt-5.2): a small shift toward lenient, from 0.812 to 0.829. 226 turns moved up against 148 down, while a re-run on the same code splits evenly (182 / 180).verbosity_or_fillerflags go from 552 to 502 andexcess_information_densityfrom 208 to 181. Why: one courtesy phrase per function and one first-mention acronym expansion are allowed, and politeness conventions are said to add length "without adding cognitive load". So turns that are polite but not repetitive are no longer counted as filler, while repeated or stacked formulas still are.Faithfulness (
us.anthropic.claude-opus-4-6-v1):failing_to_disambiguatego from 63 to 53, and forfabricating_tool_parametersfrom 48 to 40. Why: sound-alike letters or digits are flagged only when the conversation shows the ambiguity mattered.Speech fidelity (
gemini-3-flash-preview): the three audio judges catch more real entity errors and change little otherwise.English: stable on all three audio judges: one agent_speech_fidelity turn changed, and it also flips between the two Judge prompts: per-language guidance slot #249 runs. Two tts_fidelity turns changed, both about missing words.
Hindi: Judge prompts: shared rules for spelled codes, mixed-language speech, glosses and politeness #250 has no Hindi guidance, so the shared wrong-language rules also flag the code-switching that is normal in Hindi, which lowers the Hindi faithfulness and agent_speech_fidelity scores. Judge prompts: guidance for de, nl, fr, fr-CA, es, it, hi, ko, ja #251 adds Hindi guidance that allows code-switching, which will change the scores for these two metrics.
Stack
Versions are bumped in PR 3.