Claude says “You're absolutely right!” about everything

Post by hombre_fatal » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

tho24i234234 wrote: post #144

Aurornis wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Versus, if it just gave a curt and unfriendly answer, most people (esp. Americans) I don’t see this as an American thing. It’s an extension of the current Product Management trend to give software quirky and friendly personality. You can see the trend in more than LLM output. It’s in their desktop app that has “Good Morning” and other prominent greetings. Claude Code has quirky status output like “Bamboozling” and…

It most definitely is a American thing - this is why non-native speakers often come out as rude or unfriendly or plain stupid. We don't appreciate how much there is to language.

Post by quisquous » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

baggachipz wrote: post #82

I'm pretty sure they want it kissing people's asses because it makes users feel good and therefore more likely to use the LLM more. Versus, if it just gave a curt and unfriendly answer, most people (esp. Americans) wouldn't like to use it as much. Just a hypothesis.

Post by Pxtl » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

skerit wrote: post #102

gitaarik wrote: post #45

You're absolutely right! I also get this too often, when I sometimes say something like "would it be maybe better to do it like this?" and then it replies that I'm absolutely right, and starts writing new code. While I was rather wondering what Claude may think and advice me whether that's the best way to go forward.

This is indeed super annoying. I always have to add something like "Don't do anything just yet, but could it be ..."

Post by aquova » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 1:37 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #157

elif wrote: post #150

I've spent a lot of time trying to get LLM to generate things in a specific way, the biggest take away I have is, if you tell it "don't do xyz" it will always have in the back of its mind "do xyz" and any chance it gets it will take to "do xyz" When working on art projects, my trick is to specifically give all feedback constructively, carefully avoiding framing things in terms of the inverse or parts to remove.

> the biggest take away I have is, if you tell it "don't do xyz" it will always have in the back of its mind "do xyz" and any chance it gets it will take to "do xyz" You're absolutely right! This can actually extend even to things like safety guardrails. If you tell or even train an AI to not be Mecha-Hitler, you're indirectly raising the probability that it might sometimes go Mecha-Hitler. It's one of many reasons w…

Post by coryodaniel » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #160

elif wrote: post #150

I've spent a lot of time trying to get LLM to generate things in a specific way, the biggest take away I have is, if you tell it "don't do xyz" it will always have in the back of its mind "do xyz" and any chance it gets it will take to "do xyz" When working on art projects, my trick is to specifically give all feedback constructively, carefully avoiding framing things in terms of the inverse or parts to remove.

I have this same problem. I’ve added a bunch of instructuons to try and stop ChatGPT being so sycophantic, and now it always mentions something about how it’s going to be ‘straight to the point’ or give me a ‘no bs version’. So now I just have that as the intro instead of ‘that’s a sharp observation’