Prompting can't fix mode collapse: making agents sound human requires midtraining
CShorten30 · x · 2026-10-20
Weaviate engineer Connor Shorten shares the core takeaway from talking with the Humans& team about Persimmon: you can't prompt your way out of mode collapse.
- Many of his Weaviate colleagues build skills and prompts to make their agents sound more human — often like themselves or each other
- But making models genuinely sound and behave human requires intervention at the midtraining stage, not just better prompts
- Directly relevant to anyone working on agent persona and personalization
Links to the podcast episode for the full discussion.
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