AOSSIE-Org / AOSSIE-Org/DebateAI

Bot Discards Valid Arguments Containing the Word "Clarify"

Open Beginner friendly
#295 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
84
Forks
198
Avg merge
2d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
30

Description

Description
The bot response handler aggressively filters the AI's output. If the bot's generated response contains the substring "clarify" anywhere in the text—even if used legitimately (e.g., "Let me clarify my point")—the system discards the entire argument and replaces it with a generic, canned "I don't understand" message.

How to Reproduce
1. Start a debate with any bot.
2. Make a statement that requires the bot to explain a distinction.
3. If the bot attempts to say: "To clarify, the economic impact of X is..."
4. The user will instead receive: "What do you mean?" or the bot's specific clarification catchphrase.

Root cause
In debatevsbot.go:
```
if strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(response), "clarify") {
return personalityClarificationRequest(botName)
}
```

This logic is too broad and does not distinguish between the bot asking for clarification vs. providing clarification.

Expected Behavior
The bot should only send a clarification request if it genuinely cannot generate an argument. Valid arguments containing the word "clarify" should be delivered to the user.

Potential Fixes
- Remove the code side check entirely and rely on the LLM prompt to handle confusion.
- Or, change the check to ensure "clarify" is part of a question, or strictly at the start of a short response.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Read debatevsbot.go and trace the bot response handler where responses containing "clarify" are checked. Reproduce the debate scenario described in the issue, then verify that a valid argument containing the word is delivered while a genuine clarification request still receives the intended response.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
78/100

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