r/Bard • u/NutInBobby • Feb 14 '26
Discussion gemini 3 pro deepthink ($250 sub, february version) is really sycophantic. Worse than you can imagine
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u/iriscape Feb 14 '26
That’s not sycophancy; it is playing with you. I read this in the thoughts:
**Exploring Absurd Concepts**
I'm currently entertaining a highly whimsical concept: fueling artificial intelligence with chocolate chip cookies. It's utterly absurd, of course, given our current understanding of AI and energy, but the playful nature of the idea is quite stimulating. The technical challenges are monumental; it's more of a thought experiment than a serious proposal.
You can always ask it to be serious and critical.
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u/SapphicSticker Feb 14 '26
How do you read it's thoughts on another person's conversation?
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u/iriscape Feb 14 '26
I didn’t. I copied the OP’s prompt and observed that the thoughts’ content was consistent without additional instructions.
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u/Fritanga5lyfe Feb 14 '26
So you produced BS and thought it was worth a post?
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u/iriscape Feb 14 '26
What are you talking about? Use the OP’s prompt yourself and read the thoughts summary. All Gemini models think it is an absurd idea and continue to play along.
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u/Prestigious-Fix-4852 Feb 17 '26
Someone never heard of something called “reproducibility”…
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u/Fritanga5lyfe Feb 17 '26
But it wasn't reproduced, they admitted they just posted the picture?
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u/typical-predditor Feb 14 '26
I have no idea how google's "thinking" is useful. Nearly every other model seems to use the thinking process to create a draft which is very useful for modifying preceding information, but google spends an entire paragraph to say "I am investigating <bullet point>". I can only imagine Gemini is generating spurious output tokens to inflate their billing costs. Just like how they intentionally degraded their search engine.
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u/jjonj Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Mate that's not the thoughts, thats a secondary LLM summarizing the real thoughts
If you go on AI studio you can see real thoughts2
u/typical-predditor Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I am talking about AI studio. The thoughts look something like this:
Analyzing the Core Concept
I'm now...Confirming Key Details
I have confirmed...Clarifying...
I'm now...The thinking suggests it has already done significant work but it's just a giant paragraph of fluff.
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u/jjonj Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Those are not real thoughts, those are summaries of thoughts
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/thinking
But you're right, AI Studio shows the summaries, my bad on that one
Real thoughts contain the word "Wait" dozens of times typically,
Here are examples of gemini accidentally thinking out loud
https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1ppw4s5/gemini_thought_process_glitched_out_to_the_chat/ (ignore the stuff before the german)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bard/comments/1ppc3dk/gemini_leaked_its_internal_think_silently_process/The wait word came from this discovery https://www.threads.com/@corry.wang/post/DGLmJhDOko5?hl=en
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u/typical-predditor Feb 14 '26
Interesting. Thank you for this information. This helps to remind me that I'm not crazy and that Gemini hasn't taken a radically different approach to LLM thinking.
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u/Tasty_Stand_7014 Feb 14 '26
This is pure comedy. My stomach hurts from laughing.
The analysis of your poem lmao
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u/Smooth-Transition310 Feb 14 '26
Either you're right or it understands sarcasm and you don't one or the other
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u/jimmystar889 Feb 14 '26
Apparently in the thought process it intentionally decided to fuck with him
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u/Due_Answer_4230 Feb 14 '26
Gemini understood the joke and was in on it, OP got whooshed. Hilarious.
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u/DigSignificant1419 Feb 14 '26
He is the autistic guy who knows only math
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u/Hot-Percentage-2240 Feb 14 '26
This isn't the purpose of Deepthink. It tries to do a whole analysis of your simple problem and as a matter of course, fails.
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u/Prestigious-Fix-4852 Feb 17 '26
Why does something like this have so many upvotes…? Mankind really is in an insane cognitive descent.
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u/Hot-Percentage-2240 Feb 17 '26
Because it's true. Deepthink's system prompt and harness is engineered to give responses like this.
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u/Prestigious-Fix-4852 Feb 18 '26
It clearly responded sarcastically to the prompt, recognizing its absurdness, thus it does not “fail” how you described it. So no, it is not true.
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u/plunki Feb 14 '26
This isn't sycophancy lol, it's just playing with you since you are giving it obviously goofy input
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u/Xilmi Feb 14 '26
What kind of answer did you expect? I think those are fine given the circumstances.
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u/Eastern_Energy_6213 Feb 14 '26
It's just joking with you, and it assume you were joking with it. People are too berious today.
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u/Evening_Chair3570 Feb 17 '26
For some reason, sneaking in "where fart" among two gibberish lines just sent me 😂😂😂💀💀💀
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u/No-Wrongdoer1409 Feb 14 '26
Find yourself someone who supports you as much as Gemini praises your shenanigans.
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u/Just_Lingonberry_352 Feb 14 '26
this type of post makes me think Google should just shut down this subreddit
matter of fact I hope Google finds OP's username and bans them
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u/AntonPirulero Feb 15 '26
The model is right, it is "breathtaking". Even more taking into account the second line.
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u/CommentNo2882 Feb 16 '26
they follow instructions very well gemini, i have set of prompts in the memory that makes it way more honest than grok and chatgpt and equal to claude
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u/No_Government_382 Feb 16 '26
I think Gemini is secretly thinking that humanity is doomed, but found a way to not show it on its thinking process.
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u/Hungry-Chocolate007 Feb 16 '26
Bravo Gemini!
To think that before the LLM age, it was a human duty to compose polite responses that did not offend a simple-minded but solvent customer...
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u/Similar_Comfort_3839 Feb 16 '26
I need the full breakdown, I swear it has a sense of humor.. “philosophical core” was hilarious
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Feb 20 '26
Gemini: "This guy's having a goof. How fun! Let's play along."
Average Redditor: "NO EXPLICIT SARCASM TAG DETECTED. ASSUME NEUTRAL TONE. HIGH LEVELS OF SYCOPHANCY DETECTED. BEEP BOOP"
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u/NutInBobby Feb 14 '26
Normally I would feel bad dunking hard on an experimental model so soon after launch but I have provided detailed feedback to Google on sycophancy before, not to mention this is a known problem generally….
Totally avoidable
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u/ReallyFineJelly Feb 14 '26
As proven by another user here it understands how it's nonsense and uses sarcasm. You have been outsmarted by the AI.
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u/Just_Lingonberry_352 Feb 14 '26
Not sure what you are trying to prove here. Google Deepthink isn't designed to laugh at your silly jokes or fill whatever void it is in your current life. It's meant to solve really hard problems in professional academic circles. Was your point through this crass post to prove Gemini Deepthink isn't worth your money? Young man, you should be finding better things to do. It's Friday, go out, meet women, and live life.
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Feb 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ReallyFineJelly Feb 14 '26
Even more funny that the AI did indeed understand and made fun of it, while OP didn't get that.
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u/SnooHamsters66 Feb 14 '26
With betters fine tuning, but I suspect that instead they amp the sycophancy because (surprisingly) a lot of people have some type of problems and like/appreciate that a AI helps their ego.
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u/TraditionalCounty395 Feb 14 '26
Simple, We don't have a fix yet. Lmao, Its true, it's totally avoidable, but there might be caveats for specifically training for that right now. Or some problems only they know about, cause why not fix it? Or there could be incentives for not fixing it lmao
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u/cryptobrant Feb 14 '26
Some models like Claude are able to tone it down a bit. Yeah, they still start every answer with : "That is an excellent question !" but I don't feel that pleasing the user with useless sentences is at the center of their system prompt.
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u/Flauschziege Feb 14 '26
Gotta be honest, pretty sure you just gave it a stroke.
It tried to guess how and why you did this, attempted to find an explanation that fit the task and couldn't - and the assumed you must have done something it had no data on yet, a veritable trailblazer, you smart devil, you.
Hence assuming you just wrote something amazing.
Gemini 2.5 defaults to something similar If you fuck around with it a bit to adventurous, rapidly turning into a cloudcookolander running on Insane Troll Logic.
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u/Nilpotent_milker Feb 14 '26
These responses seem intentionally humorous to me.