Maybe, somewhere, in the minds of the creator of the model.

But an objective function is a core element of ML models, no? And LLMs have objective functions, so far as I'm aware.

Sure, but it doesn't need to be organization the LLMs objective. A soldier could have an objective that they don't agree with or didn't choose themselves.

In star Trek there's the prime directive, the enterprise crew follows it because it's a core requirement of the federation.

Just because the LLM has an objective to answer queries for example does not mean it chose it. or has the intent itself as sapient being would.