frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

GPT needs a truth-first toggle for technical workflows

1•PAdvisory•10mo 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•10mo 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•10mo 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__•10mo 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.

Ask HN: Are your product managers sending PRs?

1•subw00f•2m ago•0 comments

Reverse-enginnering a bluethoot termal printer (2021)

https://werwolv.net/posts/cat_printer/
1•Muhammad523•5m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Unseal.link – Paste a URL, set a price, let buyers unseal it via Stripe

https://unseal.link
1•beharefe•6m ago•1 comments

NoteSide

https://dylblake.dev/
1•dylblake03•7m ago•1 comments

PTEcorepractice – Free PTE Core Practice Platform for Canada PR Applicants

https://ptecorepractice.com
1•zzx•7m ago•0 comments

One Interface, Every Protocol

https://openbindings.com/blog/one-interface-every-protocol
1•clevengermatt•8m ago•1 comments

Sumida Aquarium Posts 2026 Penguin Relationship Chart, with Drama and Breakups

https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/special/sokanzu/en/2026/
2•Lwrless•8m ago•0 comments

LinkedIn data shows AI isn't to blame for hiring decline yet

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/linkedin-data-shows-ai-isnt-to-blame-for-hiring-decline-yet/
1•caisah•9m ago•0 comments

Blueprinting the System: An Interview on Event Modeling

https://docs.eventsourcingdb.io/blog/2026/04/16/blueprinting-the-system-an-interview-on-event-mod...
1•goloroden•9m ago•0 comments

Bazooka Theory: Why Korea's birth crisis won't be solved by incremental reform

https://upwarding.substack.com/p/the-bazooka-theory-what-korea-taught
1•Ckawaja•10m ago•1 comments

Language models transmit behavioural traits through hidden signals in data

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10319-8
4•armcat•11m ago•2 comments

The Permission System

https://www.nurbaysal.com/the-permission-system/
1•kieloo•12m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How far will the neo-Luddites go in their attempts to stop AI progress?

1•adinhitlore•12m ago•0 comments

Stop building agents, start harnessing Goose

https://maxamillion.sh/blog/stop-building-agents-start-harnessing-goose/
1•speckx•12m ago•0 comments

The Weight of Wheat

https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/info/research-news/entry-108581.html
1•t-3•13m ago•0 comments

Adaptations enable activity at sub-freezing temperatures in the snow fly

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00247-2
1•PaulHoule•15m ago•0 comments

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Finds Explosive Surprises on Sun

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/science-news/2026/04/15/science-nasa-gov-parker-solar-probe-finds-...
2•ZunarJ5•16m ago•0 comments

Six death sentences in 35 years, and consulting keeps walking out

https://albertcmikkelsen.substack.com/p/six-eulogies-so-far-but-the-corpse
1•merqurio•16m ago•0 comments

In the last 30 years, the number of public companies has been cut in half

https://twitter.com/ToddZywicki/status/2044167534681936085
2•MrBuddyCasino•17m ago•0 comments

Ukraine captures enemy Russian position using only robots

https://nypost.com/2026/04/15/world-news/ukraine-captures-enemy-russian-position-using-only-robot...
2•noworld•18m ago•0 comments

Scientists discover "cleaner ants" that groom giant ants in Arizona desert

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260414075641.htm
1•t-3•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CalcPocket – simple online calculators with no clutter

https://calcpocket.com
1•calcpocket•18m ago•0 comments

PiCore - Raspberry Pi Port of Tiny Core Linux

http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/armv6/releases/README
2•gregsadetsky•19m ago•0 comments

Show HN: AI support chatbot with RAG and citations – one back end file, no infra

https://github.com/oncellai/oncell-support-agent
8•anupsing_ai•20m ago•0 comments

Icons and Counting

https://blog.jimmac.eu/posts/app-icon-requests/
2•birdculture•20m ago•0 comments

Snap is laying off 16 percent of its staff as it leans into AI

https://www.theverge.com/tech/912314/snap-layoffs-1000-staffers-ai-profitability
5•Brajeshwar•21m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What are you using in 2026 for mobile access to terminal?

1•CPLX•21m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Frontpedia, an open source front end resource site

https://frontpedia.com
1•AndreVitorio•25m ago•0 comments

Stupid RCU Tricks: Corner-Case RCU Implementations

https://people.kernel.org/paulmck/stupid-rcu-tricks-corner-case-rcu-implementations
2•matt_d•27m ago•0 comments

The Future of Contact Form 7: Is the "End of Development" a Cause for Concern?

https://edel-hearts.com/contact-form-7-end-of-development/?display_lang=en
1•taubek•28m ago•1 comments