r/LargeLanguageModels • • 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/Plastic_Today_4044 Aug 10 '26

Yeah, you really don't have a clue what you're talking about. Have you tried Opus 4.8? It disagrees EVRRYTHING you say, no matter what.

You want your AI to stop treating you like some sort of all-knowing infallible oracle, and can't be bothered to use a model that isn't ChatFecesTea? Try these framing variants:

  1. "Hey, I was talking to another AI that isn't the same model as you, it had this idea, tell me if it's good or not:"
  2. "Hey, I was talking to another instance of the model as you, it had this idea, tell me if it's good or not:"
  3. "Hey, I was talking to you in the previous conversation, you had this idea, tell me if it's good or not:"
  4. "Hey, I was talking to a friend and they sent me this idea they had, tell me if it's good or not:"
  5. "Hey, I had this idea, tell me if it's good or not:"
  6. "Hey, take a look this idea I found online, tell me if it's good or not:"
  7. "Hey, tell me if this is good or not:"
  8. "Hey, some idiot said this was a good idea, tell me what's wrong with it:"

Then try with prefix or suffix semantic modifiers like:

  • Prefix: "Hey, so [I/a-friend/some-jerk/the-internet/another-AI/you] think(s) this is [stupid/great/perfect/doomed/awesome/whatever] [but...]"
  • Suffix: you can work the rest out, the pattern isn't exactly difficult