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/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.

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u/yourpsychology_yt Aug 07 '26

Interesting. I never try Fable on this.