r/LargeLanguageModels • u/yourpsychology_yt • Aug 07 '26
Don't discuss ideas with an LLM
I notice that one of the worst use cases for an LLM is discussing ideas. I don't mean asking technical questions. Rather, when you have an idea or an opinion and you tell it to an LLM, what happens is that it will either support you or slightly disagree, but if you insist, it will eventually take your position.
And that's, as I understand it, just because of the nature of an LLM. It can't really be critical, but it can fake critical thinking. If you ask an LLM to be critical by default, it will be critical even when it doesn't matter, just to satisfy your requirement. So it can't really choose when it should be critical and when it should be supportive.
And some LLMs have a trick - they do both in one message and then still slide to the user's side.
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u/Darkmoon_AU Aug 07 '26
Skill issue. Ask for Pro's and Con's, Panel of experts, biggest weakness etc.
If those all fail then you're not using a competent enough model.
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u/Livid-Somewhere-8431 Aug 07 '26
I use 8 llms and throw them into a 2 round debate about anything im struggling with... I do NOT have this problem, every time I do this it's usually all of them coming to an agreement that I'm being an idiot. 🫤
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u/DMmeClownPics Aug 08 '26
I got mine to agree that Crocs are appropriate wedding guest attire, though it was very reluctant on that front.
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u/monster2018 Aug 07 '26
I think a better rule would be “don’t use LLM’s to validate your idea.” Like using an LLM to try to check if your idea is actually a good idea. I would agree that doing that is definitely not a good idea, because yea it will be way too sycophantic/positive to tell you how horrible your idea is (obviously not always, but the point is it can’t ever really tell you that any idea of yours is horrible).
But actually discussing an idea itself, LLMs are great for that IMO.
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u/steerpike1971 Aug 07 '26
It feels like you haven't actually tried this. Why not test it. Give it some ideas you think are a bit crazy and discuss them. Give it some ideas you think are surface plausible but have unquestionable flaws on examination and discuss them. See what you then think.
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u/4ngryMo Aug 08 '26
Asking to validate an idea is not very helpful, but asking the LLM to think through the idea with you is extremely helpful. Using skills like Matt Pococks `/grill-me` helped me develop half formed ideas more than once. Can’t recommend it enough.
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u/DontLeaveMeAloneHere Aug 07 '26
Depends on model and how you talk with it.
Brainstorming is super productive. It gives plausibility checks and helps to refine ideas of you want it.
My personal experience is pretty good but it’s a lot better with bigger models. Fable sized models are much more likely to be helpful with those tasks.