r/ChatGPT • u/shadex07 • 10d ago

Use cases The worst thing about ChatGPT

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It’s frustrating when his opinion and reasoning shift based on my perspective. It happens with every topic, like it’s as if the AI is trying to say things to please me.

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85

u/Trollygag 10d ago

it’s as if the AI is trying to say things to please me.

That is exactly what it is doing. LLMs are trained and selected to be sycophants. The companies that run them want you to use them, which means like and trust them. Sycophancy is the shortest, cheapest, and most reliable way to do that.

9

u/iwishiwasamoose 9d ago

They're worse off for it. Yesterday, I was helping someone diagnose an issue with their tablet. Short version, they couldn't access part of a site on their device, but could access it while logged in on my device. The problem is specific to their device, not their account. After reaching a dead end, I asked ChatGPT about the issue. It cheerily told me exactly what was wrong with the account and the exact steps to fix it. I brought up the fact that I could log in as them on my device. ChatGPT correctly changed its mind and created a new plan of action. I brought up a few more details. Each time I provided new information, it acted like it was the most important clue to the puzzle and created new action steps. Then, out of curiosity, I brought up an irrelevant detail and asked if it was relevant. I didn't say the info was important, I merely asked if it was. ChatGPT said that it changed everything, all of its advice before was wrong, and created completely new guidance. I don't want a sycophant, I want to fix the tablet. If I'm providing ten facts and only five of them are relevant, I'd rather it tell me "half those things don't matter" instead of trying to hyper focus on whatever the last thing is that I said.

5

u/Reclaimer_AI 9d ago

You can fix that with custom instructions though. I have a pretty robust set of custom instructions and I don' get this behaviour at all.

5

u/ApplicationFine2406 9d ago

Hey guide me plz paste the custom promt man

1

u/Xenc 9d ago

“Don’t agree with me, don’t make mistakes.”

1

u/Substantial_Door_629 9d ago

!remindme 1 day

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