Ask Your LLM to Explain Things in ASD-STE100
Get more readable answers by asking models to explain topics in ASD-STE100, the controlled English written for aircraft manuals. The constraints force short sentences, one idea per sentence, and plain words.
If you want clearer answers from an LLM, try to ask it to explain the topic in ASD-STE100. You can also try to soften it e.g. by asking for 80% of the way to ASD-STE100. When using it for Danish output you can still ask it to apply the rules of ASD-STE100 even though it is an English standard.
That is the practical tip Andrej Karpathy shared on X.
Models know the standard well, and its strict rules on sentence length, vocabulary, and structure produce text that is often much easier to read than a model’s default prose.
What ASD-STE100 is
ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is an international standard and controlled natural language designed to make technical documentation clear, concise, and easy to understand for everyone, especially non-native English speakers. (Wikipedia - Simplified Technical English).