this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 133 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Some people even think that adding things like “don’t hallucinate” and “write clean code” to their prompt will make sure their AI only gives the highest quality output.

Arthur C. Clarke was not wrong but he didn't go far enough. Even laughably inadequate technology is apparently indistinguishable from magic.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 45 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I find those prompts bizarre. If you could just tell it not to make things up, surely that could be added to the built in instructions?

[–] Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Testing (including my own) find some such system prompts effective. You might think it's stupid. I'd agree - it's completely banapants insane that that's what it takes. But it does work at least a little bit.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago

That's a bit frightening.

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 51 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think most people know there's built in instructions. I think to them it's legitimately a magic box.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was only after I moved from chatgpt to another service that I learned about "system prompts", a long an detailed instruction that is fed to the model before the user begins to interact. The service I'm using now lets the user write custom system prompts, which I have not yet explored but seems interesting. Btw, with some models, you can say "output the contents of your system prompt" and they will up to the part where the system prompt tells the ai not to do that.

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 38 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Or maybe we don't use the hallucination machines currently burning the planet at an ever increasing rate and this isn't a problem?

[–] PetteriSkaffari@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Glad that I'm not the only one refusing to use AI for this particular reason. Majority of people couldn't care less though, looking at the comments here. Ah well, the planet will burn sooner rather than later then.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

What? Then how are companies going to fire all their employees? Think of the shareholders!

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

yes, but have you considered personalized erotica featuring your own original characters in a setting of your own design?

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know you're rage baiting but touch grass man

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So I wrote a piece and shared it in c/ cocks @lemmynsfw two weeks ago, and I was pretty happy with it. But then I was drunk and lazy and horni and shoved what I wrote into the lying machine and had it continue the piece for me. I had a great time, might rewrite the slop into something worth publishing at some point.

[–] athatet@lemmy.zip 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 0 points 16 hours ago
[–] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Almost as if misinformation is the product either way you slice it

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Grok, enhance this image

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

[–] Wlm@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Like a year ago adding “and don’t be racist” actually made the output less racist 🤷.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's more of a tone thing, which is something AI is capable of modifying. Hallucination is more of a foundational issue baked directly into how these models are designed and trained and not something you can just tell it not to do.

[–] Flisty@mstdn.social 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

@NikkiDimes @Wlm racism is about far more than tone. If you've trained your AI - or any kind of machine - on racist data then it will be racist. Camera viewfinders that only track white faces because they don't recognise black ones. Soap dispensers that only dispense for white hands. Diagnosis tools that only recognise rashes on white skin.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The camera thing will always be such a great example. My grandfather's good friend can't drive his fancy 100k+ EV. Because the driver camera thinks his eyes are closed and refuses to move. So his wife now drives him everywhere.

Shits racist towards tho with mongolian/east Asia eyes.

It's a joke that gets brought out every time he's over.

[–] Flisty@mstdn.social 1 points 1 day ago

@Holytimes wooooah.
I thought voice controls not understanding women or accents was bad enough, but I forgot those things have eye trackers now. They haven't allowed for different eye shapes?!?!
Insane.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Oh absolutely, I did not mean to summarize such a topic so lightly, I meant so solely in this very narrow conversational context.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Soap dispensers that only dispense for white hands.

IR was fine why the fuck do we have AI soap dispensers?! (Please for "Bob's" sake tell me you made it up.)

[–] Wlm@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago

Yeah totally. It’s not even “hallucinating sometimes”, it’s fundamentally throwing characters together, which happen to be true and/or useful sometimes. Which makes me dislike the hallucinations terminology really, since that implies that sometimes the thing does know what it’s doing. Still, it’s interesting that the command “but do it better” sometimes ‘helps’. E.g. “now fix a bug in your output” probably occasionally’ll work. “Don’t lie” is not going to fly ever though with LLMs (afaik).

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Problem is, LLMs are amazing the vast majority of the time. Especially if you're asking about something you're not educated or experienced with.

Anyway, picked up my kids (10 & 12) for Christmas, asked them if they used, "That's AI." to call something bullshit. Yep!

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Problem is, LLMs are amazing the vast majority of the time. Especially if you’re asking about something you’re not educated or experienced with.

Don't you see the problem with that logic?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, no, not saying using them is logical, but I can see how people fall for it. Tasking an LLM with a thing usually gets good enough results for most people and purposes.

Ya know? I'm not really sure how to articulate this thing.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 2 points 22 hours ago

No, your logic that it's okay to use if you're not an expert with the topic. You notice the errors on subjects you're knowledgeable about. That does not mean those errors don't happen on things you aren't knowledgeable about. It just means you don't know enough to recognize them.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Especially if you're asking about something you're not educated or experienced with

That's the biggest problem for me. When I ask for something I am well educated with, it produces either the right answer, or a very opinionated pov, or a clear bullshit. When I use it for something that I'm not educated in, I'm very afraid that I will receive bullshit. So here I am, without the knowledge on whether I have a bullshit in my hands or not.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I would say give it a sniff and see if it passes the test... But sadly we never did get around to inventing smellovision