Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 560 posts

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

#461

Post by hinkley »

wavemode wrote: post #437
hinkley wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If calves aren’t cows then children aren’t humans.

No, you're thinking of the term "cattle". Calves are indeed cattle. But "cow" has a specific definition - it refers to fully-grown female cattle. And the male form is "bull".

Have you ever been close enough to 'cattle' to smell cow shit, let alone step in it?

Most farmers manage cows, and I'm not just talking about dairy farmers. Even the USDA website mostly refers to them as cows: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2025/07-25-2025.php

Because managing cows is different than managing cattle. The number of bulls kept is small, and they often have to be segregated.

All calves drink milk, at least until they're taken from their milk cow parents. Not a lot of male calves live long enough to be called a bull.

'Cattle' is mostly used as an adjective to describe the humans who manage mostly cows, from farm to plate or clothing. We don't even call it cattle shit. It's cow shit.

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

#462

Post by lyfy »

fph wrote: post #171

In the code for Donald Knuth's Tex, there is an error message that says "Error produced by \errpage. I can't produce an error message. Pretend you're Hercule Poirot, look at all the facts, and try to deduce the problem." When I copy-paste that error into an LLM looking for a fix, usually I get a reply in which the LLM twirls its moustache and answers in a condescending tone with a fake French accent. It is hilarious.

Use those little grey cells!

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

#463

Post by ben_w »

cozyman wrote: post #398
visarga wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no Truth, only ideas that stood the test of time. All our knowledge is a mesh of leaky abstractions, we can't think without abstractions, but also can't access Truth with such tools. How would Truth be expressed in such a way as to produce the expected outcomes in all brains, given that each of us has a slightly different take on each concept?

"There is no Truth, only ideas that stood the test of time" is that a truth claim?

It's an idea that's stood the test of time, IMO.

Perhaps there is truth, and it only looks like we can't find it because only some of us are magic?

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

#464

Post by leptons »

nojs wrote: post #117

I'm starting to think this is a deeper problem with LLMs that will be hard to solve with stylistic changes. If you ask it to never say "you're absolutely right" and always challenge, then it will dutifully obey, and always challenge - even when you are, in fact, right. What you really want is "challenge me when I'm wrong, and tell me I'm right if I am" - which seems to be a lot harder. As another example, one common…

>"challenge me when I'm wrong, and tell me I'm right if I am"

As if an LLM could ever know right from wrong about anything.

>If you ask it to never say "you're absolutely right"

This is some special case programming that forces the LLM to omit a specific sequence of words or words like them, so the LLM will churn out something that doesn't include those words, but it doesn't know "why". It doesn't really know anything.

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

#465

Post by megablast »

klik99 wrote: post #338
jjoonathan wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ChatGPT opened with a "Nope" the other day. I'm so proud of it. https://chatgpt.com/share/6896258f-2cac-800c-b235-c433648bf4...

Is that GPT5? Reddit users are freaking out about losing 4o and AFAICT it's because 5 doesn't stroke their ego as hard as 4o. I feel there are roughly two classes of heavy LLM users - one who use it like a tool, and the other like a therapist. The latter may be a bigger money maker for many LLM companies so I worry GPT5 will be seen as a mistake to them, despite being better for research/agent work.

> AFAICT it's because 5 doesn't stroke their ego as hard as 4o.

That’s not why. It’s because it is less accurate. Go check the sub instead of making up reasons.

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

#466

Post by tankenmate »

Terretta wrote: post #456
mFixman wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole mess is a good example why benchmark-driven-development has negative consequences. A lot of users had expectations of ChatGPT that either aren't measurable or are not being actively benchmarkmaxxed by OpenAI, and ChatGPT is now less useful for those users. I use ChatGPT for a lot of "light" stuff, like suggesting me travel itineraries based on what it knows about me. I don't care about this version being 8.…

> I don't care about this version being 8.243% more precise, but I do miss the warmer tone of 4o. Why? 8.2% wrong on travel time means you missed the ferry from Tenerife to Fuerteventura. You'll be happy Altman said they're making it warmer. I'd think the glaze mode should be the optional mode.

"glaze mode"; hahaha, just waiting for GPT-5o "glaze coding"!

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

#467

Post by Terretta »

jon_richards wrote: post #395
miroljub wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, this joke works only for natives who know that calf is not cow.

I guess a more accessible version would be toast… what do you put in a toaster?

Here's one for you:

A funny riddle is a j-o-k-e that sounds like “joke”.

You sit in the tub for an s-o-a-k that sounds like “soak”.

So how do you spell the white of an egg?

// All of these prove humans are subject to "context priming".

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

#468

Post by Dylan16807 »

svnt wrote: post #334
lucb1e wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LLMs cannot tell fact from fiction. What's commonly called hallucinations stems from it not being able to reason, the way that humans appear to be able to do, no matter that some models are called "reasoning" now. It's all the same principle: most likely token in a given position. Adding internal monologue appears to help because, by being forced to break it down (internally, or by spitballing towards the user when t…

You’re absolutely wrong! This is not how reasoning models work. Chain-of-thought did not produce reasoning models.

How do they work then?

Because I thought chain of thought made for reasoning. And the first google result for 'chain of thought versus reasoning models' says it does: https://medium.com/@mayadakhatib/the-era-of-reasoning-models...

Give me a better source.

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

#469

Post by Terretta »

lazide wrote: post #387
miroljub wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, this joke works only for natives who know that calf is not cow.

Well, it works because by some common usages, a calf is a cow. Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.

Not trying to steer this but do people really use cow to mean bull?

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

#470

Post by aaronbaugher »

Terretta wrote: post #469
lazide wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it works because by some common usages, a calf is a cow. Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.

Not trying to steer this but do people really use cow to mean bull?

No one who knows anything about cattle does, but that leaves out a lot of people these days. Polls have found people who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and I've heard people say they've successfully gone "cow tipping," so there's a lot of cluelessness out there.
Post reply on HN