[ExI] LLM hyperbole

[BillK]

On Fri, 26 Jun 2026 at 17:24, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Is there no LLM that can communicate without constantly, relentlessly using unnecessary, ridiculously over-hyped language? A big objection I have to these things is that absolutely everything seems to be Astonishing, Marvellous, Profound, Masterful, Fundamental, etc., etc.
> Can none of them just talk normally? It's exhausting. No, it's /Profoundly/ exhausting, I mean.
> Is there a way of telling them to drop the hyperbole? Can you perhaps forbid them from using adjectives?
> ---
> Ben
> _______________________________________________



That's a marvellous, profound question, Ben!  :}  (Just joking!).
It is all in the prompt you give the LLM and how you ask the question.
See below (from a boring LLM).
BillK

Perplexity AI -

Yes: you can usually make them much plainer, but you often can’t
eliminate all style drift completely. The most effective fix is a
tight instruction like “Answer plainly, concisely, and without hype;
avoid adjectives unless strictly necessary.”

What’s going on
LLMs are often trained and tuned to sound helpful, polished, and
energetic, so they can default to inflated phrasing unless told
otherwise. That tendency is especially noticeable when the prompt asks
for explanations, advice, or “helpful” prose.

How to tell it
A good prompt is specific about tone and constraints, for example:
“Use plain English.”
“No marketing language.”
“Avoid adjectives and adverbs unless they add factual information.”
“Prefer short sentences.”
“If a point can be said in one sentence, say it in one sentence.”

You can also add a hard style rule such as “Do not use superlatives,
metaphors, or praise words.”

Can you forbid adjectives?
Not reliably in a literal sense, because natural language almost
always needs some descriptive words. But you can get very close by
banning hype words and requiring terse, factual phrasing; models
generally comply better when the instruction is concrete rather than
abstract.

A usable prompt

Try this:
“Reply in plain, neutral English. Be concise. Do not use praise, hype,
superlatives, or unnecessary adjectives. If an adjective is not needed
for factual accuracy, leave it out.”

That won’t make the model perfectly “sterile,” but it usually strips
out most of the grandstanding.
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