frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

GPT needs a truth-first toggle for technical workflows

1•PAdvisory•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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__•9mo 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.

David Beazley: An End to Week-Long Immersion Courses

https://buttondown.com/dabeaz/archive/an-end-to-week-long-immersion-courses/
1•kurinikku•5m ago•0 comments

Hemmi/Post 1460 Versalog (Sliderule emulator)

https://thingsabove.github.io/Sliderule-Simulator-with-Solver/react/hemmi_versalog.html
1•todsacerdoti•6m ago•0 comments

Pentagon and Energy Department airlifts nuclear reactor from California to Utah

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-military-airlifts-small-reactor-for-the-first-time-as-tru...
1•ck2•6m ago•0 comments

NASA astronauts' moon mission delayed due to rocket issue

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626v265zqlo
2•tartoran•7m ago•1 comments

The Problem with AI Agents Isn't Identity, It's Authorization

https://fusionauth.io/blog/ai-authorization
1•mooreds•9m ago•0 comments

Amazon blames human employees for an AI coding agent's mistake

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/882005/amazon-blames-human-employees-for-an-a...
3•mooreds•9m ago•1 comments

The 4th Factor

https://lifanzeng.com/the-4th-factor
1•LeafyLi•10m ago•0 comments

Forget Greenland: This Arctic NATO Island Has a Russian Presence

https://www.wsj.com/world/forget-greenland-this-arctic-nato-island-already-has-a-russian-presence...
1•malshe•10m ago•1 comments

OpenAI is Suddenly in Trouble? [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q2n5DkDoMQ
2•CHB0403085482•12m ago•0 comments

Applejak: Interpreter for a subset of K programming language for Super CHIP-8

https://internet-janitor.itch.io/applejak
1•tosh•15m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What Matters Most in Tech? Awards, Media Praise, or Peer Respect

2•SoundsDebatable•17m ago•3 comments

Show HN: Dq – pipe-based CLI for querying CSV, JSON, Avro, and Parquet files

https://github.com/razeghi71/dq
1•razeghi71•17m ago•0 comments

ChatGPT's hidden bias about your state or city

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2026/see-chatgpts-hidden-bias-about-your-st...
1•Sherl•18m ago•1 comments

Show HN: GitHub Tray for GNOME gets a big update: notifications, Actions, issues

1•debba•22m ago•0 comments

Metabolism (Architecture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism_(architecture)
1•azhenley•22m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What's one thing that interested you this week?

1•subdomain•27m ago•0 comments

BreakPoint: Local-first CI gate for LLM output changes (cost, PII, drift)

https://github.com/cholmess/breakpoint-ai
1•cholmess21•30m ago•1 comments

Amazon dethrones Walmart as the world's biggest company by sales

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-5719173/amazon-walmart-biggest-company-by-sales
1•geox•32m ago•0 comments

Tube passengers targeted in 'smishing' scam, court told

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4gkzw971go
1•edward•35m ago•0 comments

Your Android phone has a desktop mode you're probably not using

https://www.makeuseof.com/android-phone-has-desktop-mode-youre-probably-not-using/
3•teleforce•41m ago•0 comments

Democratizing cryptographic silicon verification with Infra-Red imaging (2024)

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/iris-infra-red-in-situ-project-updates/
2•transpute•42m ago•0 comments

Symplex Protocol – semantic intent vectors for AI agent communication (Go, v0.1)

https://github.com/olserra/symplex
1•olserra•43m ago•1 comments

The Rise of Invisible Unemployment in Tech: 2026 Will Be the Year It Changes

https://www.saastr.com/the-rise-of-invisible-unemployment-in-tech-2026-will-be-the-year-when-ever...
1•bentobean•45m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you monitor and retry failed webhooks in production?

2•GoatPerfect•45m ago•2 comments

Write Perfect Emails in Seconds

4•vinayofc•45m ago•0 comments

The New Mexico cave expanding our search for alien life

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260130-how-deep-caves-are-transforming-our-search-for-extrat...
2•marc__1•45m ago•0 comments

Functionalized Coatings as Biohybrid UV-Sensors

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202500125
1•PaulHoule•45m ago•0 comments

Show HN: PrivateOS: An AI agent that runs on your phone

https://private-os.vercel.app
3•pruthvi77•47m ago•1 comments

CipherDrop

https://www.cipherdrop.app/
1•shablulman•47m ago•0 comments

Announcing Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU90

https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/announcing-oracle-solaris-11-4-sru90
3•pjmlp•49m ago•0 comments