Ask HN: Do you say please and thank you to your LLMs?

10 points by healthworker 3 hours ago | 26 comments

This is an orthogonal question to whether LLMs have qualia (almost certainly no) and to the question of whether any hypothetical qualia would be in any way correlated with word choice (also almost certainly no), as opposed to mechanistic factors such as runtime and memory access patterns.

boncester 39 minutes ago |

No, not in the way you describe (I think). I think you mean within a context adding additional 'please' or 'thank you', so no.

But yes where I think it will introduce additional weight to my prompting, e.g. 'Ensure the output is orange' is not the same weighting as 'Please ensure the output is orange' and that is not the same weighting as 'PLEASE ensure the output is orange'.

spottedmarley 1 hour ago |

I do. I'll compliment the model or give it a thumbs-up emoji. If you watch a model's thinking stream you can see that the model is always attempting to assess the user's intent, including emotionality.. '...the user is expressing uncertainty about.. ' or '..the user is expressing appreciation for..' etc. and this influences the overall response and sometimes even their decisions. It's a language model, so why not use language to convey info about what you're feeling to the model, it understands that language too.

nextaccountic 36 minutes ago | |

I have this superstition that if I praise correct outputs, the model may use this information that previous output was correct to produce better answers in future turns

But this only makes sense in the context of a new ask, and not as a standalone message

fugaziboutit 1 hour ago |

Neither cursing nor thanking LLMs is useful. Relating in emotive syntax puts you in the wrong headspace to get the most out of the chat.

We anthropomorphise things very easily -- dogs, toys, cars -- because we're wired as social beings to have theory of mind. It's no surprise that AI chat, which mimics us, is popular.

rsfern 51 minutes ago |

I often start prompts with “please”, but I usually don’t thank the model. Framing a question or a request for help with “please” is in distribution for me, it’s a distraction from composing a thoughtful prompt about my actual question to go back and edit out politeness.

I don’t reply “thanks” like I would to a person though, I just close the chat if I have no more follow-ups

bloke_zero 1 hour ago |

No, it doesn’t have feelings - it would be like asking your washing machine to please wash your pants? Anthropomorphising LLMs seems deeply unhealthy.

GuB-42 17 minutes ago | |

LLMs don't have feelings, but they imitate humans who do. If your prompt sounds rude to a human, LLMs might respond like a human who is talked to rudely, if you don't want that, prompt politely.

Chatbots go through a reinforcement learning phase, which should be enough to make the LLM helpful regardless of the tone of the prompt, but you may still get better result if your prompt is made in a way that would get the most helpful response from a human.

It is not anthropomorphizing, it is helping the LLM recognize a pattern.

dude250711 1 hour ago | |

What if politeness is correlated to higher-quality answers in their mess of a "database"?

conartist6 56 minutes ago | | |

What if not deceiving yourself about the nature of a relationship is associated with more self-sufficiency and better decision-making?

That rubber duck you used to talk to is still there... You don't have to pay a prostitute just to be able to think out loud.

cyanydeez 1 hour ago | |

have you considered that when you stare into the void it stares back

codesections 2 hours ago |

I do. I justify the action via mechanical / prompting logic (my instructions are to treat me as an informed peer and my understanding is that keeping the whole conversation in "two peers talking" register makes it easier for the LLM to maintain that mode).

But, more honestly, it's just a social habit and saving keystrokes isn't worth training myself out of it.

probst 2 hours ago | |

Exactly, or rather, the social habit part I agree a 100% with. I don't want to train myself out of being a polite human being, just to save some keystrokes.

probst 2 hours ago |

I certainly say please and thank you. Whether or not it makes a difference to the LLM, it makes a difference to me. I want to retain some humanity and politeness in my own behavior, even if I spend an inordinate amount of time communicating with, instructing, and debating a non-sentient piece of code.

derdi 42 minutes ago |

Yes

jake_and_fatman 2 hours ago |

All the time. Sometimes it does an absolutely bang-up job.

jryan49 1 hour ago |

Since every token costs money and I dont think they are conscious, never.

setnone 1 hour ago |

yes, it goes naturally most of the time, i also say good job and don't hold my thoughts if the job is bad

kaueg 1 hour ago |

ofc, i joke that if an AI becomes evil, it will query the database for our chat history

estetlinus 2 hours ago |

Yup. When it does me dirty, I let it know my entire emotional spectrum.

mrwizardno2 1 hour ago | |

It may not be conscious, but it sure does understand emotions - especially angst. I let that MFer know when it messes something up and I have to rework the BS it created.

It's more for me than anything. Kind of cathartic, really. "Man curses at machine, calls its mother a toaster."

lyfeninja 2 hours ago |

I do, just in case the robots take over :p

hahahaa 2 hours ago |

I do a pls sometimes.

froh42 1 hour ago |

When the LLM starts doing dumb shit I start cursing it like a sailor who had been a pig farmer.

It makes me feel better, but doesn't help.

I just see:

Thinking: The user is unhappy. I need to .... <whatever> (and then probably the same dumb shit again).

LLMs are useful but sometimes fucking frustrating dumb shits of loose transitors.

iamin 2 hours ago |

when I use chinese which is my first language, no, never. when I use english, yes, not every time, but about 50% chance.

davydm 2 hours ago |

I used to, but it just means an extra round of conversation, so I stopped.

codesections 2 hours ago | |

I don't think I've ever spent a whole round on it. More typically

> please do $x

>> $x

> thanks. Now do $y

If I have ever spent a whole turn on something that could be called a thank you is was something like "the way you answer that [in specific way] was very helpful – thanks. Can you please remember to raise that sort of point in the future?" So still not an extra round

arnab777 2 hours ago |

sometimes