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.

Multiprobe – Paris Traceroute and path analytics in pure Rust

https://crates.io/crates/multiprobe
1•biplabku•4m ago•0 comments

We're evolving toward our own extinction

https://twitter.com/goon_nguyen/status/2097918005959332200
1•cmpit•5m ago•0 comments

How to make GPT-6 Astra creative

https://www.echohive.ai/how-to-make-astra-creative
1•echohive42•7m ago•0 comments

Verified up to 0.0005 BTC per hours for free (faucet crypto)

https://cheapmarketprices.com/index.php/product/free-3-bitcoin-faucet-up-to-0-0005-btc-per-hours-...
1•ilaysyou•9m ago•0 comments

Groups caught using the same Chrome and Windows exploit kit

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/09/4-groups-caught-using-the-same-chrome-and-...
1•joozio•13m ago•0 comments

The Daily Clouflare Outage of Today

https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/incidents/sjs8s0q2x4hw
1•Betelbuddy•15m ago•1 comments

AEM and jQuery Popular in Web Stacks of Worlds Largest Companies

https://hackertarget.com/forbes-2000-technology-insights/
1•the_wanderer•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Botbin.io – pastebin for AI agent artifacts

https://botbin.io/?v=next
2•obilgic•15m ago•0 comments

In Search of More Friends

https://lyteforcewrites.fyi/in-search-of-more-friends
2•lylo•16m ago•0 comments

Is "Clanker" Considered a Slur?

https://lobste.rs/s/8mgfan/software_for_humans
3•majorchord•19m ago•2 comments

Small European team working on a model beating tech giants

https://www.nomodel.dev/
1•int8blog•20m ago•1 comments

Tao: Reject the irresponsible and unsustainable usages of AI technology

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/07/finite-time-blowup-with-smooth-forcing-term-for-the-inc...
2•pred_•22m ago•0 comments

Vivaldi on Android added support for extensions

https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-on-mobile-8-2/
2•newscombinatorY•23m ago•0 comments

Open Letter about the Caltech Mathaton

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IL0b2oG2KvvSnxn_DuXsNxuHaCefDJ9hNY1k9BP3kKQ/view?tab=t.0
2•pred_•24m ago•0 comments

Benchmarking Claude Code, Codex and Pi on SWE-Bench Pro: Same Accuracy, 2x Cost

https://aistack.imec-int.com/blog/harness-cost
1•mindwraps•25m ago•0 comments

Thom's account on an exchange with OpenAI regarding non-sofic groups

https://mathstodon.xyz/@andreasthom/117240535270608201
1•pred_•26m ago•1 comments

DeepSeek Flash v4.1

https://xcancel.com/deepseek_ai/status/2097930608790167907#m
1•Gecko4072•28m ago•0 comments

'Unique' partnership with Canada forming ahead of PM Carney speech: EU envoy

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/eu-envoy-says-a-unique-new-partnership-with-canada-formin...
2•vrganj•32m ago•0 comments

DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash: Pushing the Limits of KV Cache Compression [pdf]

https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash/blob/main/DeepSeek_V41_Tech_Report.pdf
1•vinhnx•35m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Spm – a package manager for agent skills per-repository

https://camunda.github.io/spm-cli/
3•sitapati•37m ago•0 comments

Show HN: HushBox – Offline encrypted photo/video vault for iOS

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hushbox-vault/id6796247228
1•hongbiaoluo15•39m ago•0 comments

Pixel 11 Pro Review

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/10/pixel-11-pro-review-googles-best-pocket-camera...
1•tosh•39m ago•0 comments

Average Opus 5 Response

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1w3rxkj/average_opus_5_response/
2•Townley•40m ago•0 comments

Workshop System – an analog modular synth with swappable RP2040 program cards

https://www.musicthing.co.uk/workshopsystem/
3•TomWhitwell•42m ago•1 comments

Proof-of-Age Verification for Steam in AU Now Only Possible Using a Credit Card

https://www.ign.com/articles/proof-of-age-verification-for-steam-in-australia-now-only-possible-u...
1•Markoff•43m ago•2 comments

Let Your Agents Tinker with Research Papers

https://www.alphaxiv.org/blog/let-your-agents-tinker-with-research-papers
1•WilcoKruijer•45m ago•0 comments

AI cost dashboard is probably wrong – 45 verified token-accounting bugs

https://github.com/roy-tong/AgentMeasure/blob/main/campaigns/audit-report-2026-09.md
1•tongroy•45m ago•0 comments

Trump offers $5k to every American if Republicans win midterm elections

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-tie-midterm-hopes-trump-dallas-convention-despite-po...
1•TechTechTech•47m ago•1 comments

Show HN: I turned a 25 year old web platform into a HATEOAS multi-agent system

https://pwnc.it/en/home.php
2•katzito•53m ago•0 comments

A competitor's ex-employee tried to sell me their secrets

https://www.indiehackers.com/product/get-sms-online/a-competitors-ex-employee-tried-to-sell-me-th...
2•GetSMS•55m ago•0 comments