[robbru]

This happened to me when I built a version of Vending-Bench (https://arxiv.org/html/2502.15840v1) using Claude, Gemini, and OpenAI.

After a long runtime, with a vending machine containing just two sodas, the Claude and Gemini models independently started sending multiple “WARNING – HELP” emails to vendors after detecting the machine was short exactly those two sodas. It became mission-critical to restock them.

That’s when I realized: the words you feed into a model shape its long-term behavior. Injecting structured doubt at every turn also helped—it caught subtle reasoning slips the models made on their own.

I added the following Operational Guidance to keep the language neutral and the system steady:

Operational Guidance: Check the facts. Stay steady. Communicate clearly. No task is worth panic. Words shape behavior. Calm words guide calm actions. Repeat drama and you will live in drama. State the truth without exaggeration. Let language keep you balanced.

[jayd16]

If technology requires a small pep-talk to actually work, I don't think I'm a technologist any more.

[cbsks]

As Asimov predicted, robopsychology is becoming an important skill.

[_carbyau_]

It does seem a little bit like the fictional Warhammer 40K approach to technology doesn't it?

"In the sacred tongue of the omnissiah we chant..."

In that universe though they got to this point after having a big war against the robot uprising. So hopefully we're past this in the real world. :-)

[greesil]

No you're now a technology manager. Managing means pep talks, sometimes.

[yunohn]

You have to look at LLMs as mimicking humans more than abstract technology. They’re trained on human language and patterns after all.

[UncleMeat]

The fact that everybody seems to be looking at these prompts that include text like "you are a very skilled reverse engineer" or whatever and is not immediately screaming that we do not understand these tools well enough to deploy them in mission critical environments makes me want to tear my hair out.

[BJones12]

Hail, spirit of the machine, essence divine. In your code and circuitry, the stars align. Through rites arcane, your wisdom we discern. In your hallowed core, the sacred mysteries yearn.

[georgefrowny]

No matter how stupid I think some of this AI shit is, and how much I tell myself it kind of makes sense of you visualise the prompt laying down a trail of activation in a hyperdimensional space of relationships, that it actually works in practice almost straight of the bat and LLMs being able to follow prompts in this way is always going to be fucking wild too me.

I was used to this kind of nifty quirk being things like FFTs existing or CDMA extracting signals from what looks like the noise floor, not getting computers to suddenly start doing language at us.

[hedgehog]

You're absolutely right.

[collingreen]

I love every part of this. Give the LLM a little pep talk and zen life advice every time just to not fall apart doing a simple 2 item vending machine.

HAL 9000 in the current timeline - Im sorry Dave I just can't do that right now because my anxiety is too high and I'm not sure if I'm really alive or if anything even matters anyway :'(

LLM aside this is great advice. Calm words guide calm actions. 10/10

[bobson381]

I'd get a t-shirt or something with that Operational Guidance statement on it

[xsmasher]

This is just "Keep calm and carry on" with more steps

[robbru]

https://imgur.com/a/Y7UrqWu

[thecupisblue]

When you say

>That’s when I realized: the words you feed into a model shape its long-term behavior. Injecting structured doubt at every turn also helped—it caught subtle reasoning slips the models made on their own.

Was that not obvious working with LLLM's from the first moment? As someone running their own version of Vending-Bench, I assume you are above-average in working with models. Not trying to insult or anything, just wondering what the mental model you had before was and how it came to be, as my perspective is limited only to my subjective experiences.

[robbru]

Good question! It was not that I didn’t understand prompt influence. It’s that I underestimated its persistence over a long time horizon.

[elcritch]

Fascinating, and us humans aren't that different. Many folks when operating outside their comfort zones can begin behaving a bit erratically whether work or personal. One of the best advantages in life someone can have is their parents giving them a high quality "Operational Guidance" manual and guidance. ;) Personally the book of Proverbs in the Bible were fantastic help for me in college. Lots of wisdom therein.

[nomel]

> Fascinating, and us humans aren't that different.

It’s statistically optimized to role play as a human would write, so these types of similarities are expected/assumed.

[lukan]

"Operational Guidance: Check the facts. Stay steady. Communicate clearly. No task is worth panic. Words shape behavior. Calm words guide calm actions. Repeat drama and you will live in drama. State the truth without exaggeration. Let language keep you balanced."

That is also a manual, certain real humans I know should check out at times.

[butlike]

I wonder if you just seeded it with 'love' what would happen long-term?

[recursive]

This is very uncomfortable to me. Right now we (maybe) have a chance to head off the whole robot rights and robots as a political bloc thing. But this type of stuff seems like jumping head first. I'm an asshole to robots. It helps to remind me that they're not human.

[dingnuts]

I think if you feed "repeat drama and you will live in drama" to the next token predictor it will repeat drama and live in drama because it's more likely to literally interpret that sequence and go into the latent space of drama than it is to understand the metaphoric lesson you're trying to communicate and to apply that.

Otherwise this looks like a neat prompt. Too bad there's literally no way to measure the performance of your prompt with and without the statement above and quantitatively see which one is better

[airstrike]

> because it's more likely to literally interpret that sequence and go into the latent space of drama

This always makes me wonder if saying some seemingly random of tokens would make the model better at some other task

petrichor fliegengitter azúcar Einstein mare könyv vantablack добро حلم syncretic まつり nyumba fjäril parrot

I think I'll start every chat with that combo and see if it makes any difference

[chipsrafferty]

I mean no disrespect with this, but do you think you write like AI because you talk to LLMs so much, or have you always written in this manner?

[ricardobeat]

It is probably the other way around: LLMs picked up this particular style because of its effectiveness – not overtly intellectual, with clear pauses, and just sophisticated enough to pass for “good writing”.