Hi! how do you come around the fact that sometimes chatgpt tells you he can deliver something when in fact after a long discussion he tells you it is not something he can do?
#meeting expectations
woven prawn
woeful sundialBOT
Hi @woven prawn. I'm kapa.ai, your friendly support bot. I will try to answer your question by searching through the knowledge base. :wave:
Great question. What you’re running into is a known limitation of AI assistants: they can sometimes sound confident about capabilities they don’t actually have, and only “admit” limits later. This happens because models generate likely-sounding continuations from patterns in data, and confidence doesn’t always equal correctness or feasibility.
Here are practical ways to reduce this and set better expectations:
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Ask for constraints up front.
- Example: “Before we start, can you confirm whether you can actually do X directly, or only help me plan/outline it?” This helps surface limits early, since models can hallucinate capabilities (e.g., accessing paywalled sites, running code locally, or performing actions outside the chat). [ChatGPT can be helpful; ChatGPT doesn't know everything]
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Request a step-by-step plan before investing time.
- Ask for a brief plan with explicit assumptions and required tools (e.g., “web search,” “file uploads,” “data analysis”). This often exposes gaps early (like needing a tool that’s rate-limited on your plan). [Practical tips; GPTs Free tier limits]
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Use reliability techniques for complex tasks.
- Prompt it to “think step by step,” split the task into smaller subtasks, and ask it to justify choices before committing. These patterns improve accuracy on complex reasoning tasks. [Techniques to improve reliability]
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Verify early outputs.
- Treat initial drafts as a first pass, not final. Verify quotes, data, links, and technical claims before proceeding down a long path. [Practical tips]
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Clarify model/tool limitations.
- The model might not have web access, might hit rate limits (especially on Free tier for search, uploads, data analysis, DALL·E), or lack access to certain sites due to paywalls/robots.txt. Ask it to state its current tools and limits before starting. [ChatGPT doesn't know everything; GPTs Free tier limits; GPTs FAQ limits]
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Watch for signs of hallucinations.
- Fabricated citations, overly confident answers to ambiguous questions, or precise but unverifiable details are red flags—pause and ask for sources or a simpler, verifiable reformulation. [ChatGPT can be helpful]
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Give feedback and course-correct.
- If the answer drifts or overpromises, explicitly say: “Please restate what you can and cannot do in this chat, and adjust the plan accordingly.” Also use the thumbs-down to report unrelated or incorrect answers. [Unrelated answers]