‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

"As a Language Model": Chat Template Switches LLM Self-Referential Voice

103 points · 110 comments · yu3zhou4

  1. Izmaki · · focus · HN ↗
    "As a Language Model..." is one of the beginnings of a sentence I hate the most from LLMs and is the reason why I support free (as in "Liberty"), local models. I'm well aware that it is not a doctor and cannot replace a real doctor with multiple years of experience, I don't need to waste braincell activity on reading that it "as a Language Model" cannot give a precise diagnosis and that I should ask a real doctor - all I want to know is if I what I experience justifies either A) ER, B) 3-4 weeks scheduled doctors appointment or C) two paracetamol and a nap.

    I don't want "jailbroken" LLMs to commit crime. I want them to avoid having this vendor-specific "bloatware" all over the product I'm using.

    1. IshKebab · · focus · HN ↗
      Always makes me think of that Bill Bailey "as a mother" joke. Similar cringe to those UX "As a user, I want to blah blah" things too. Just say "Users want to be able to blah blah", or better yet make a freaking table.
      1. junon · · focus · HN ↗
        The UX "cringe" you speak of was/is a real methodology to product engineering. You'd have a number of personas, the user being one of them. A lot of the time you'd have more specific user personas, or even have fake names for these people who had different wants and needs from your product.

        Then when brainstorming on a team, you'd start with "as a user"/"as an admin"/"as a Power-User"/"as Eva" and then use the first person. It framed the product story as something requested by that person.

        Was just one way to go about it. Idk the origins of it though but it dates back to at least 2010 if memory serves, probably way before that.

        1. IshKebab · · focus · HN ↗
          I'm not saying that methodology is cringe (although making up people totally is). I mean how they write out the sentences like "As a user, I want to ..." instead of just having a table of features with a column for the target user type.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.