Comment by post-it
11 hours ago
> I'll check it too by asking "are you just placating me?" the funny thing is that often it'll admit that, yes, it wasn't being very critical, and then procede to over correct and become a complete contrarian. and not in a way that's useful either.
It's not admitting anything. Your question diverts it down a path where it acts the part of a former sycophant who is now being critical, because that question is now upstream of its current state.
Never make the mistake of asking an LLM about its intentions. It doesn't have any intentions, but your question will alter its behaviour.
I think people really have a hard time understanding a sycophant can be contrarian. But a yesman can say yes by saying no
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484664
> a yesman can say yes by saying no
What a great way to summarize LLM behaviour in 2026
> it'll admit that, yes, it wasn't being very critical, and then procede to over correct and become a complete contrarian
Which is also placating you
I think “admit” here is just a description of what the LLM was saying. It doesn’t imply that the OP thinks the LLM has internal beliefs matching that.
An alternate way of thinking about it is LLMs have no reflection capability. Literally any “reflection” it claims to have about its decision making is made up. It has absolutely no way know that what it said was based on some ancient proverb, the phase of the moon or cold hard rational thought.
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