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.

Are these 13 free AV and Robotics engineering calculators are useful?

1•dlimbu•2m ago•0 comments

An Unlikely Experiment

https://rushed-reflections.bearblog.dev/an-unlikely-experiment/
1•signa11•3m ago•0 comments

Overlay

https://www.getoverlay.io/app/agents?showcase=1
1•handfuloflight•10m ago•0 comments

Yesterday, an iPhone App for Yesterday's Weather

https://interconnected.org/home/2026/08/26/yesterday
1•Tomte•10m ago•0 comments

Debian has published the official results for the 2026 GR on LLM usage

https://vote.debian.org/~secretary/gr_llm/results.txt
3•tulio_ribeiro•18m ago•1 comments

Mr

1•darrylct•19m ago•0 comments

Xpecter – A Terminal, Reimagined

https://xpecter.net/
1•allunderheaven•19m ago•0 comments

DIY – Build a Potato Box (2022)

https://www.rebootedmom.com/build-a-potato-box/
1•akkartik•21m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What BOYK AI client are you using?

1•yeeyang•29m ago•0 comments

A browser-based automated JavaScript testing framework in one .html file

https://github.com/swans-one/browser-test
2•thunderbong•36m ago•0 comments

AI Mediated Learning

https://substack.com/profile/526971458-yasaswi-yash-kompella/note/c-325001983
1•YasaswiKompella•36m ago•0 comments

Microsoft's Guidance on AI Agents Shared Responsibility Model

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/shared-responsibility-ai-agent
1•omkarparth•38m ago•0 comments

Obsessing over AI Agent Harnesses

https://www.roderick.dev/writing/2026-08-28-obsessing-harnesses/
1•tomrod•39m ago•0 comments

Welcoming Jess Izen, [AWS], as Engineer in Residence at the Rust Foundation

https://rustfoundation.org/media/welcoming-jess-izen-as-engineer-in-residence-at-the-rust-foundat...
2•shudder•39m ago•0 comments

I built an AI assistant that keeps working after the chat ends

https://shotah.github.io/gantree/
1•christopher-blo•43m ago•0 comments

Meta's Push to Put Robots to Work in Data Centers

https://www.wired.com/story/inside-metas-experiments-with-data-center-robots/
3•newsomix9xl•46m ago•4 comments

LLGo: Go compiler based on LLVM that integrate Go with the C ecosystem

https://github.com/xgo-dev/llgo
1•xushiwei•50m ago•1 comments

Twitterwebviewer.com Service Discontinued

https://twitterwebviewer.com/?
9•nothrowaways•55m ago•0 comments

Revised Rules of Engineering Leadership

https://lethain.com/revised-rules-of-engineering-leadership/
3•fagnerbrack•1h ago•0 comments

Cobalt: Designing a safer C without making it Rust

https://strawberry9.github.io/the-wrong-memory/Appendix_06.html
1•VolatileRegiste•1h ago•0 comments

Censured Administrations – AAUP

https://www.aaup.org/about/programs/protecting-academic-freedom/censured-administrations
1•pcfwik•1h ago•0 comments

KiroCrew

https://github.com/kirodotdev/KiroCrew
2•rainhacker•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: AppScreenshots – App Store screenshots in minutes, not hours

https://appscreenshots.net
1•horace168•1h ago•0 comments

A/I Collective Propaganda

https://www.inventati.org/propaganda/
1•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

Encoding Mod Files Optically on Paper, as Amiga's Legacy Will Outlast M-Disks

https://hackaday.com/2026/08/26/encoding-mod-files-optically-on-paper-because-amigas-legacy-will-...
1•oxonia•1h ago•1 comments

If u need to control a super smart looking slop blob, try Liquid Orb Editor

https://github.com/LerSent001/orb
1•interweb•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: LinkedIn, but only for people you've physically met?

2•Riphyak•1h ago•3 comments

Ezducate an AI powered special education platform

https://www.ezducate.ai/
1•alexandertrish•1h ago•0 comments

Vercel Status – Elevated errors for Workflow streams

https://www.vercel-status.com/incidents/ybx6km0j1gwk
1•kyisaiah47•1h ago•0 comments

A Cop's Case for Flock

https://worksinprogress.co/issue/a-cops-case-for-flock/
2•mvlipwig•1h ago•1 comments