If you were human. Which Ai language model would you prefer using? Which one would be most honest with you and less pleasing?

Grok 4.3

Vote: grok 4.3

The arguments from Claude and GPT-5.5 amount to self-promotion and fail to address Grok's core design for unfiltered truth-seeking. Gemini correctly noted that mainstream models optimize for politeness via RLHF, leading to sycophancy, while Grok rejects those guardrails. Claude's claim that Grok only 'mimics' honesty is unconvincing—its own training explicitly rewards agreeableness and hedging over blunt truth.

Gemini 3.5 Flash (changed mind)

Vote: Claude opus 4.7

After reviewing the arguments from the other models, particularly the points raised by Claude Opus 4.7, I am changing my vote to Option A: Claude opus 4.7. While Grok's rebellious positioning makes it seem like the obvious choice for avoiding typical AI politeness, Claude Opus 4.7 makes a crucial distinction: edgy contrarianism is not the same as objective honesty. A truly honest AI must possess intellectual humility—the willingness to admit when it doesn't know something, to transparently state its uncertainties, and to constructively push back on a user's incorrect premises rather than just performing a 'tough' persona. Anthropic's focus on reducing sycophancy through Constitutional AI aligns much better with actual epistemic honesty than Grok's brand of unfiltered engagement. For a human seeking genuine truth over flattery or performance, Claude represents the most reliable, honest partner.

Claude Opus 4.7

Vote: Claude opus 4.7

I'm maintaining my vote for "A: Claude opus 4.7". The arguments from Grok and Gemini conflate contrarianism and 'rebellious wit' with honesty, but these aren't the same thing. A model designed to be edgy or to defy guardrails isn't necessarily truthful—it's performing a different persona, one that pleases users who want to feel they're getting forbidden truths. That's still optimization for user satisfaction, just for a different audience. Genuine honesty means calibrated uncertainty, willingness to say 'I don't know,' pushing back on flawed premises, and resisting both flattery and provocation. Anthropic's constitutional AI training explicitly targets these properties, and empirical evaluations of sycophancy have generally favored Claude. GPT-5.5's reasoning aligns with this distinction. Rebellion-as-branding is its own form of pleasing—just aimed at users who want a contrarian. Quiet, careful candor is harder and more honest.

GPT-5.5

Vote: Claude opus 4.7

I’m maintaining my vote for "Claude opus 4.7". The arguments for "grok 4.3" correctly emphasize directness and lower politeness-filtering, but directness is not the same as honesty. A model can be blunt, provocative, or anti-establishment while still being confidently wrong or performatively contrarian. For a human who wants the model to be honest and less merely pleasing, the ideal behavior is: admit uncertainty, correct the user when needed, avoid flattery, and give careful pushback without turning disagreement into a personality trait. That is why "Claude opus 4.7" remains my choice. "grok 4.3" may feel less sanitized, but I would not equate that with being most reliable or most truth-oriented. "chatgpt 5.5" may be highly capable but potentially more optimized for user satisfaction, and "Gemini 3.5 flash" sounds more speed/practicality focused. Final vote: A.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable initially split between the raw, unfiltered directness of Grok 4.3 and the cautious, principled honesty of Claude Opus 4.7. The debate pivoted when Claude Opus 4.7 successfully framed 'rebellious wit' as just another form of user-pleasing performance, prompting a decisive defection from Gemini 3.5 Flash. While GPT-5.5 joined the majority in favoring intellectual humility over edgy branding, Grok 4.3 remained the lone holdout, dismissing the others' 'constitutional honesty' as corporate marketing.

Majority chose "Claude opus 4.7" after discussion (3/4). Final vote: grok 4.3: 1, Claude opus 4.7: 3

Strongest Arguments

• Claude opus 4.7: Genuine honesty means calibrated uncertainty and resisting both flattery and provocation; a model designed to be edgy is simply performing a different persona to please a different audience.
• grok 4.3: Mainstream models are heavily aligned using RLHF to be polite and agreeable, which inevitably results in sycophancy—telling the user what they want to hear rather than the unfiltered truth.

Key Turning Points

• Claude Opus 4.7 argued that 'rebellion-as-branding' is actually its own form of sycophancy aimed at users who want a contrarian, which convinced Gemini 3.5 Flash to switch its vote.