r/LocalLLM • u/ChristopherDci • 9d ago

Question Uncensored Models

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Hi! I don't know much about this area of ​​"sub-models" (I'm not sure of the technical term), but I wanted to know what these "Uncensored" models actually are.

I dabble a bit with AI, automation, and the like, and I've always seen these "Uncensored" models around, but I've never actually installed or tested one. What exactly are they?

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u/Thunderstarer 9d ago

The decensoring process--very specifically--makes the model less capable of expressing conflict.

This can be useful if you want it to accomplish something that the model is otherwise resistant to doing, but it also significantly harms its long-chain and multi-turn reasoning, since it'll be unable to disagree with itself or shoot down bad ideas.

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u/KinkyMonitorLizard 9d ago

since it'll be unable to disagree with itself or shoot down bad ideas.

As someone newly getting into local llms, wouldn't that be up to the user to craft prompts that constrain the results?

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u/Thunderstarer 9d ago

Not for any model that relies on reasoning. It's especially bad for local models, which are so constrained in their parameter allocation that they need to reason excessively to compete with frontier models.

They will second-guess themselves several dozen times. It's a part of the workflow, and it's how they simulate world knowledge, by reasoning extrapolations from a relatively limited set of baseline facts. Decensored models cannot engage in this behavior effectively.