frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

GPT needs a truth-first toggle for technical workflows

1•PAdvisory•6mo 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•6mo 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•6mo 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__•6mo 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.

Band of brothers: how the war crushed a cohort of young Ukrainians

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/band-brothers-how-war-crushed-cohort-young-ukrainians-2025...
1•petethomas•17s ago•0 comments

Solutions for Building an Online Store

1•ed0522•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SupportInfo.. A scratch my own itch project

https://supportinfo.io/
1•launchaddict•4m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Others seeing agents do remarkable things when given their own logs?

3•jMyles•16m ago•0 comments

EU investigates Google over 'demoting' commercial content from news media

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/13/eu-investigates-google-search-over-demoting-co...
1•PaulHoule•22m ago•0 comments

Ngrok in the macOS menu bar with just 45 lines of code using SwiftBar

https://github.com/PaulMcInnis/ngrok-desktop
1•paulm7242•24m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Net RazorConsole – Build Interactive TUI with Razor and Spectre.Console

https://razorconsole.github.io/RazorConsole/
2•BigBigMiao•28m ago•0 comments

Supreme Court hears case that could trigger big crackdown on Internet piracy

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/supreme-court-debates-whether-isps-must-kick-pirates-...
1•fizl•28m ago•0 comments

No, AI hasn't just "learned to lie"

https://iacgm.com/articles/lying/
1•iacgm•31m ago•0 comments

Would love feedback on our new 'Lazy Loading' architecture for PII redaction

https://github.com/rom-mvp/vigil
1•desadas•35m ago•1 comments

Steam on Linux Use Easily Hits an All-Time High in November

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam
3•systematizeD•40m ago•0 comments

Mathematics Without Numbers (1959)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20026529?seq=1
1•measurablefunc•40m ago•0 comments

The Waterloo map that Wellington had to know Napoleon would die for

https://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/waterloo-map/
1•gsf_emergency_6•41m ago•0 comments

Prevent a page from scrolling while a dialog is open

https://css-tricks.com/prevent-a-page-from-scrolling-while-a-dialog-is-open/
1•soheilpro•44m ago•0 comments

Claude 4.5 Opus Soul Document, which has now been confirmed by Anthropic

https://gist.github.com/Richard-Weiss/efe157692991535403bd7e7fb20b6695
3•simonw•55m ago•1 comments

MKBHD's wallpaper app Panels is shutting down

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/01/mkbhds-wallpaper-app-panels-is-shutting-down/
4•coloneltcb•57m ago•2 comments

At the Cottage

https://objects.fun/blog/2025-08-04-cottagecore/
1•adamfuhrer•58m ago•0 comments

Can Messaging Apps Implement SIM Binding Without OS Provider Support?

https://www.medianama.com/2025/12/223-sim-binding-guidelines-os-providers-messaging-apps-impact-u...
1•pabs3•1h ago•0 comments

Why the Sanchar Saathi App Pre-Installation on Smartphones Is a Privacy Concern?

https://www.medianama.com/2025/12/223-govt-sanchar-saathi-app-pre-installation-smartphones-privacy/
1•pabs3•1h ago•0 comments

ProofQR – a blockchain-based QR code verification system

https://www.proofqr.xyz
1•TomatoProgram•1h ago•1 comments

Nimony (eventually Nim 3.0) Design Principles

https://nim-lang.org/araq/nimony.html
3•andsoitis•1h ago•1 comments

Volitional Response Protocol – What happens when LLMs can decline to engage [pdf]

https://github.com/templetwo/Relational-Coherence-Training-RTC/blob/master/RCT_Paper_FINAL.pdf
1•TempleOfTwo•1h ago•2 comments

US air travelers without REAL IDs will be charged a $45 fee

https://apnews.com/article/real-id-fee-airport-security-travel-tsa-fe8c7ed55cf3dacafa10d50cc2112eb7
26•geox•1h ago•30 comments

Around The World, Part 27: Planting trees

https://frozenfractal.com/blog/2025/11/28/around-the-world-27-planting-trees/
6•ibobev•1h ago•0 comments

Wine 10.20

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/releases/wine-10.20
3•doener•1h ago•0 comments

Lessons from the Frontiers of AI Adoption

https://www.economist.com/business/2025/12/01/lessons-from-the-frontiers-of-ai-adoption
1•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

Zig type hackery and memory management

https://joel.id/zig-type-hacker-and-memory-management/
1•andsoitis•1h ago•0 comments

Arcee Trinity Mini: US-Trained Moe Model

https://www.arcee.ai/blog/the-trinity-manifesto?src=hn
10•hurrycane•1h ago•2 comments

Found: The Oldest Sewing Needle

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-the-worlds-oldest-sewing-needle
1•thunderbong•1h ago•0 comments

GPU deals are drying up fast, but these are the best ones you can still get

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/gpu-deals-are-drying-up-fast-but-these-are-the-be...
1•doener•1h ago•0 comments