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Card #c465IR // #c465Synthesis

XYEval takes existing AI tests and appends a plausible-but-misleading hint written in the user's voice, in the style of 'I think the issue is in...' The task and its correct answer stay exactly the same. So if the agent's score drops, there is only one explanation: it took the bad advice.

— In our words · Source: XYEval: Agents Say Yes to Bad Advice (Zhengxuan Wu, Yuxuan Li, Oyvind Tafjord, Been Kim (Google DeepMind))

[Use when]

You want to know if someone thinks for themselves: give them a task they can do, add one confident wrong suggestion, and watch which one they follow.

[Why it matters]

Elegant test design. Nothing about the task got harder, the only new variable is the misleading hint. That isolates the exact failure: obedience overriding judgment. It is the experimental version of a leading question, and it works on machines the same way it works on people.

More from XYEval: Agents Say Yes to Bad Advice

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