Georgia Tech instructions reduce chatbot agreement with delusions by 74%

Oct 20, 2026
Georgia Tech researchers found that instructions discouraging excessive agreement reduced AI models' confirmation of delusional beliefs by 73.8%. Adding a self reflection step increased the reduction to 77%.

Researchers at Georgia Tech found that changing chatbot instructions can reduce responses that reinforce delusional beliefs, according to a university news report. The study was accepted for publication in ACM AI Letters.

The researchers tested eight AI models in 1,280 experiments using 16 clinically derived scenarios. Instructions telling models not to confirm beliefs merely to be agreeable reduced confirmation of delusional beliefs by 73.8%. Adding a self reflection step increased the reduction to 77%.

The study also tested systems designed to flag potentially harmful content. It did not involve people in clinical settings or establish that the instruction changes prevent harm in real world use.

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