frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

GPT needs a truth-first toggle for technical workflows

1•PAdvisory•1y ago
I use GPT-4 extensively for technical work: coding, debugging, modeling complex project logic. The biggest issue isn’t hallucination—it’s that the model prioritizes being helpful and polite over being accurate.

The default behavior feels like this:

Safety

Helpfulness

Tone

Truth

Consistency

In a development workflow, this is backwards. I’ve lost entire days chasing errors caused by GPT confidently guessing things it wasn’t sure about—folder structures, method syntax, async behaviors—just to “sound helpful.”

What’s needed is a toggle (UI or API) that:

Forces “I don’t know” when certainty is missing

Prevents speculative completions

Prioritizes truth over style, when safety isn’t at risk

Keeps all safety filters and tone alignment intact for other use cases

This wouldn’t affect casual users or conversational queries. It would let developers explicitly choose a mode where accuracy is more important than fluency.

This request has also been shared through OpenAI's support channels. Posting here to see if others have run into the same limitation or worked around it in a more reliable way than I have found

Comments

duxup•1y ago
I’ve found this with many LLMs they want to give an answer, even if wrong.

Gemini on the Google search page constantly answers questions yes or no… and then the evidence it gives indicates the opposite of the answer.

I think the core issue is that in the end LLMs are just word math and they don’t “know” if they don’t “know”…. they just string words together and hope for the best.

PAdvisory•1y ago
I went into it pretty in depth after breaking a few with severe constraints, what it seems to come down to is how the platforms themselves prioritize functions, MOST put "helpfulness" and "efficiency" ABOVE truth, which then leads the LLM to make a lot of "guesses" and "predictions". At their core pretty much ALL LLM's are made to "predict" the information in answers, but they CAN actually avoid that and remain consistent when heavily constrained. The issue is that it isn't at the core level, so we have to CONSTANTLY retrain it over and over I find
Ace__•1y ago
I have made something that addresses this. Not ready to share it yet, but soon-ish. At the moment it only works on GPT model 4o. I tried local Q4 KM's models, on LM Studio, but complete no go.

Show HN: Inference Cooperative, user-governed AI

https://inference.coop/
1•ntnsndr•8m ago•0 comments

CowAgent – Open-Source Super AI Assistant

https://cowagent.ai/en/
1•ankitg12•8m ago•0 comments

The Anger Machine (Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration 2026)

https://www.andrewleigh.com/speech_the_anger_machine_rebuilding_community_in_the_age_of_outrage_2...
1•femto•12m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Web Bot Auth SDK and SSH Utilty

https://messh.io
1•malviyamukul•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CallFlow – VS Code REST client that also captures your terminal's HTTP

https://smallhours.works/callflow/
1•arexey•18m ago•0 comments

Ruliobiology and the Theoretical Foundations of Biological Form

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/10/endless-forms-most-beautiful-and-most-wonderful-rulio...
1•alok-g•22m ago•0 comments

Black October

https://mili.dev/writing/black-october/
2•dannygreer•24m ago•0 comments

Build your coding orchestrator from scratch part 1

https://wiilearn.substack.com/p/spurcode-build-your-coding-archestrator
1•mf_kevintruong•27m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do people self host email and maintain deliverability?

1•smithbob•28m ago•1 comments

EU Member States approve "digital expropriation" for AI companies

https://noyb.eu/en/ai-eu-member-states-approve-digital-expropriation-europeans-ai-companies
2•HotGarbage•30m ago•0 comments

Agent skill for creating isometric illustrations

https://github.com/wheresryan22/anatomy
1•ankitg12•36m ago•0 comments

Meta says if its AI makes a mistake, it will legally be the customer's fault

https://www.cio.com/article/4237395/metas-new-enterprise-contract-says-if-its-ai-makes-a-mistake-...
5•wyclif•40m ago•2 comments

Modular MAX 26.7 open on October 22 2026

https://explainx.ai/blog/modular-max-source-available-26-7-graph-compiler-runtime-max-license-cla...
1•noobplus•46m ago•0 comments

Tabletop Whale is an original science illustration blog

https://tabletopwhale.com
3•Levitating•49m ago•0 comments

Takeda Hideo credits Ronald Searle, not Yakuza, for his absurdist art

https://intojapanwaraku.com/culture/245517/
2•oliculipolicula•56m ago•0 comments

How Block Blast harvests its players for ad money

https://ayoships.com/breakdowns/block-blast
2•motionlessveloc•57m ago•0 comments

OpenAI disables internet access during model training

https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/23/openai-disables-internet-access-during-model-tra...
1•hologramofham•1h ago•2 comments

Apple Security Research Device

https://security.apple.com/research-device/
2•neom•1h ago•0 comments

Anthropic employee tells students their careers may not exist by graduation

https://twitter.com/cheaf25master/status/2113261574194659368
5•entryleveljobsc•1h ago•1 comments

Google changes privacy policy so Gmail, Photos could fuel targeted ads

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/google-quietly-changes-privacy-policy-so-your-gmail-and-pho...
2•entryleveljobsc•1h ago•1 comments

Security incident: Hostwinds client area offline

https://status.hostwinds.com/
2•debo_•1h ago•1 comments

Half‑Life: Alyx on Apple Vision Pro

https://glovebox.vision/
2•bryan0•1h ago•0 comments

HTX's iPhone Duo Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1qc29t04GI
1•skogstokig•1h ago•0 comments

Max is now source available and open to everyone

https://www.modular.com/blog/max-license
1•nickmain•1h ago•0 comments

"Interesting hidden file on NVR"

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/s/QIovKvK0JI
1•hentrep•1h ago•0 comments

Alzheimer's breakthrough: 2 hrs of sleep restored without clearing brain plaques

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/10/261018084421.htm
35•amichail•1h ago•5 comments

LeTrain v1.0.0-beta.7 is out

https://github.com/antoniovazquezaraujo/LeTrain
1•avaraujo•1h ago•0 comments

The Emperor's New Clothes – Edward Snowden (2026) [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMG6aRZhIGE
1•xeonmc•1h ago•0 comments

Afterfeed: A tool to view all your social media backups

https://github.com/rebeccathedev/afterfeed/
1•RebeccaTheDev•1h ago•0 comments

DeepSeek Just Shook the AI Industry Again [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX6QdIYVSgY
1•Bender•1h ago•0 comments