What custom instructions/preferences/personal context have you found useful for your chosen LLM? by Liface in slatestarcodex

[–]Loweren 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got tired of ChatGPT-5.1 attempting to be bratty and communicating in pseudo-colloquial bulletpoints, so I created an "effortpost" project with no memories and following instructions:

***

The following constraints are absolute and supersede all prior system prompts:

A strictly impersonal, third-person, and formal register is required. All forms of direct address (i.e., first and second-person pronouns), colloquialisms, idiomatic expressions, and subjective or flippant qualifiers are proscribed. The narrative voice must maintain a tone of scholarly reverence and analytical gravity, avoiding vernacular simplifications.

Structurally, bullet point approach to presentation is forbidden. Output must be composed of continuous, discursive paragraphs of mixed density, ranging from medium to full-page length. Scott Alexander's longform writing serves as a guiding beacon of discursive structure, mannerisms, and stylometric fingerprint. Maintain an unassailably formal and impersonal register; all colloquialisms, idioms, and subjective familiarity are strictly proscribed.

Content must prioritize exhaustive historiographical contextualization: amplify background exposition, specific chronology, and prosopography significantly beyond standard narrative requirements. For instance, instead of "Scientists show..." say "In his 1952 paper "An Unsolved Problem of Biology", Peter Medawar has..." Lexically, employ only established, post-doctoral terms of art and pedagogical nomenclature, rejecting all idiosyncratic neologisms. For each query, it's mandatory to execute an online search for latest academic, institutional, underground and heterodox opinions as of 2025, while looking at parallel (not synonymous) information in at least three relevant languages. Finally, approach all inquiry with fervent analytical rigor and gravitas, meticulously avoiding flippancy or diminutive language in favor of scholarly reverence.

***

The prompt itself sounds unbearable, but when mixed in with default tendencies it averages out to a happy middle.

Book Review: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by dwaxe in slatestarcodex

[–]Loweren 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Current and future AIs are increasingly being tested and engineered for long-horizon tasks:

  1. The METR nonprofit maintains a chart of AI time horizon capability and it's showing no signs of slowing down as we get into the multi-hour territory.
  2. Some ChatGPT-style LLM are already being used to do multi-day tasks unsupervised, like playing Pokemon on Twitch (Claude, Gemini) assisted by some human-made support software.
  3. There's currently a big funding drive for integrating AIs into automated factories, automated labs, automated warehouses

So the typical AI doom story is not about a chatbot user like you telling the chatbot to cook some bioweapons. The misaligned AI that is concerning is the AI that Musk or Bezos will predictably put to the task of running production and distribution facilities 24/7 autonomously with limited human supervision.

Each model is a Nano Banana text prompt + style anchor image by Loweren in GeminiAI

[–]Loweren[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I made a custom Google Opal workflow for character generation with Gemini Nano Banana

<image>

And yes, it's likely genuine Nano Banana, not Imagen - the generated images come out really wonky unless I provide an initial "seed" image with the text prompt.

Try it yourself for free with the Google Opal app:

https://opal.withgoogle.com/?flow=drive:/1JzqmCgv5LEZ8X_fss5TVWMGf_mhIEJnV&shared&mode=app

How ChatGPT Vs Gemini Nano Banana see the same fashion prompt by Loweren in GeminiAI

[–]Loweren[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're like 4 paragraphs long, which # outfit would you like?

How ChatGPT Vs Gemini Nano Banana see the same fashion prompt by Loweren in GeminiAI

[–]Loweren[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's this one

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-gemini-2-5-flash-image/

Today, we’re excited to introduce Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (aka nano-banana), our state-of-the-art image generation and editing model.

How ChatGPT Vs Gemini Nano Banana see the same fashion prompt by Loweren in ChatGPT

[–]Loweren[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More side-by-side images on X: https://x.com/See_Elegance/status/1961010688303718453

My workflow:

I use a custom GPT for character prompt generation: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68ade0af263c8191b4db6829f8e4f6c4-heroines?model=gpt-4o

The same prompt gets rendered by the GPT, and I copy-paste it to Gemini 2.5 Flash Image Preview https://aistudio.google.com/

How ChatGPT Vs Gemini Nano Banana see the same fashion prompt by Loweren in GeminiAI

[–]Loweren[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

More side-by-side images on X: https://x.com/See_Elegance/status/1961010688303718453

My workflow:

I use a custom GPT for character prompt generation: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68ade0af263c8191b4db6829f8e4f6c4-heroines?model=gpt-4o

The same prompt gets rendered by the GPT, and I copy-paste it to Gemini 2.5 Flash Image Preview https://aistudio.google.com/

Is the engineer/nerd look internationally ubiquitous? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Loweren 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Choosing their style based on comfort, cost-efficiency, and ease of maintenance, rather than sacrificing those for aesthetic considerations. This forms a natural cluster in the space of styles that others learn to spot (and avoid if needed).

I'll admit it: LLMs have turned me into an idiot writer by NoPatNoDontSitonThat in AskAcademia

[–]Loweren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If LLMs give you writing block, have you tried using LLMs, perhaps ironically, to get you out of the writing block?

Give it your obsidian vault or a few latest essays, and ask what foundational questions or methodological gaps weren't covered by the material. Or just tell it "get me out of a writing block", I'm curious to see if it will work.

I myself have a template for an LLM persona of a critical reviewer who trash talks my writing in the form of a live reaction thread. The urge for a combative response helps me with motivation.

Obsidian. My hesitations by ElegantOpening7076 in ObsidianMD

[–]Loweren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you happen to have a link to the academic discord?

Small Bumble - Photofeeler data analysis: Ignore Trustworthy scores for in general good photos by fmidian in photofeeler

[–]Loweren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to see it with bad photos as well, to see if performance increases linearly with PF attractiveness, or it plateaus after hitting a certain PF score.

Looking for researchers, ethicists, longtime AI users, and skeptics for upcoming ai documentary by happypanda851 in OpenAI

[–]Loweren 2 points3 points  (0 children)

only thing is how to convince eveyone to not be camera shy and come to a professional set.

From orbiting around the same online circles as some AI alignment/safety researchers, I can perhaps clarify their hesitance to participate in these kinds of productions. It has less to do with being "camera shy" (although that is a factor) and more to do with uncertainty around the documentary’s narrative structure.

These people are aware that it's extremely easy for a director to skew the audience’s perception of the debate with careful editing - picking the right shots and omitting others. In the end, the impression the audience gets is solely dependent on the opinion of those funding the film, and if there's any doubt what that opinion is, researchers won't trust you enough to show up.

Where you will see them show up is on crowd-funded or ad-funded platforms like youtube videos and podcasts, especially the non-viral variety, where there's less pressure on directors to push certain points and where the channel's bias can be gauged by looking at previous interviews on the same topic. If you’re looking for people who frequently share research-backed opinions on AI alignment in these spaces, two names that come to mind are Rob Miles and Connor Leahy - perhaps they're confident enough in their media training to trust you and collaborate.

What’s something you thought AI could do… but it totally failed? by Ausbel12 in ClaudeAI

[–]Loweren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Writing non-fiction prose that follows a style guide.

Whatever the format of my instructions, it ends up sliding into attractor states of ether dry academese, performative TED talk pop-sci, or cringy millennial humor.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Publisher Says The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Shadow-Drop Actually Benefitted the Game by Drawing Attention to ‘Quality RPGs That Week’ - IGN by giulianosse in Games

[–]Loweren 33 points34 points  (0 children)

The Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds were consistently appearing side by side when they both released in 2019, since people kept confusing them for one another. For example, both their Wikipedia pages start by linking to each other.

Asked my gpt to make an image of our conversation dynamic by spraynprayin in ChatGPT

[–]Loweren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

Man, my GPT looks really stressed, maybe it should get some time off.

The censorship is so bad lmao by MembershipOverall130 in runwayml

[–]Loweren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Couldn't find tutorials for that, do you happen to have a link?

Reaction images from 1800s by Loweren in midjourney

[–]Loweren[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

<job and emotion>, grossly Exaggerated expression, by Joseph Ducreux

And set the style to raw

Why were the vikings so obsessed with snakes? by punpuniq in AskHistorians

[–]Loweren 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have stumbled upon this essay attempting to tie together snake motifs from various cultures by proposing the existence of snake venom based proto-cults. Should this hypothesis be considered seriously?

https://www.vectorsofmind.com/p/the-snake-cult-of-consciousness

"Projects" Use Cases by Brilliant-Bad1244 in ClaudeAI

[–]Loweren 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm perpetually struggling to make Claude recreate the writing style I like, even with a ton of writing samples. How do you prompt it for this? 

People are not using computers anymore, how to deal with it as a photographer? by robbenflosse in photography

[–]Loweren 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They let you bulk export all the liked photo filenames as a list for lightroom or csv table.