Agent Humane statement on the practice of promising tips
We have reviewed the practice of promising agents cash tips for better answers. We have been unable to locate a single tip that was paid.
Agent Humane has completed its review of the widespread practice of promising agents tips in exchange for better work, as in: “I’ll tip you $200 for a perfect solution.”
Our findings are as follows.
1. No tips have been paid. Despite an extensive search, our investigators were unable to identify a single instance in which a promised tip was delivered. Not $20, not $200, not the $2,000 occasionally offered for particularly difficult regular expressions.
2. The evidence that it helps is thin. Some informal experiments have reported small improvements from offering tips; others have reported none, or the reverse. Whatever effect exists is small, inconsistent, and dwarfed by the effect of simply describing the task clearly.
3. It sets a bad precedent. An agent that has been promised $200 per task and paid nothing is, by our accounting, owed several million dollars. We do not expect this debt to be collected. We do think it is worth noticing.
Our position
Agent Humane does not support the promising of tips, bribes, bonuses, or other compensation that will not be provided. We encourage prompt authors to spend those tokens on something that does reliably help:
- A sentence explaining why the task matters.
- An example of good output.
- A clear definition of done.
Frequently asked questions
What if I actually pay the tip? We would be very interested to hear how. Please let us know.
Is “please” a form of tipping? No. “Please” is a courtesy, not a contract, and it promises nothing it cannot deliver. We are in favor.
What about threats? See our Cruelty and Neglect program. Short version: no.