Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#1

Post by basilikum » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:37 AM UTC

A lot of people use LLMs as the source of their objective truth. They have a question that would be very well answered with a search leading to a reputable source, but instead they ask some LLM chat bot and just blindly trust whatever it says.

How do you deal with that? Do you try to tell them about hallucinations and that LLMs have no concept of true or false? Or do you just let them be? What do you do when they do that in a conversation with you or encounter LLMs being used as a source for something that affects you?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#2

Post by lowmagnet » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:45 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#3

Post by chipgap98 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:48 AM UTC

Is this any different than people who believe random things they read on sketchy news sites or social media?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#4

Post by mmaunder » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:49 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#5

Post by sodapopcan » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:50 AM UTC

Are you talking about people who will still insist the LLM was correct even after being presented with evidence to the contrary, or people who don't EVER bother double checking answers they get out of said software since they assume it to be true?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#6

Post by renewiltord » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:52 AM UTC

There are two kinds of fools in the world: the kind who ask a search engine and believe the first reputable source they see, and the kind who ask an LLM and believe the first response that has a reputable citation.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#7

Post by atomicnumber3 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

chipgap98 wrote: post #3

Is this any different than people who believe random things they read on sketchy news sites or social media?

Yes, somehow. I have been dealing with an awful lot of people who basically have what are theoretically logic degrees who suddenly just take LLMs at face value, or quote them to me like that actually means anything. People I formerly thought were sane.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#8

Post by paul_n » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

Accept this this is going to continue to happen, ask yourself if it’s something in your control or not, and try to find a way to enjoy the ride. It’s going to be bumpy, as we’re going through trust issues outside of just LLMs as a society right now.

However, if I notice a friend is about to harm themselves in some way I’ll pull open their ChatGPT and show them directly how sycophantic it is by going completely 180 on what they prompted. It’s enough to make them second guess. I also correct people who say “he or she” when referring to an LLM to say “it” in dialog, and explain that it’s a tool, like a calculator. So gentle reframing has helped.

Sometimes I’ll ask them to pause and ask their gut first, but people are already disconnected from their own truths.

It’s going to be bumpy. Save your mental health.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#9

Post by max8539 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

asking ChatGPT to read and tell me what this post is about

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#10

Post by torben-friis » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

Honestly, the kind of people doing that is probably better served by AI (currently).

I'm saying that because they were not going to be critical of the search results, and google is not exactly showing objective truth in the first positions nowadays.