# Text gets mysteriously reversed in AI Summarization payload

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** ai
**Created:** [January 30, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727 "2026-01-30T05:41:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![markschmucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/markschmucker/32/141599_2.png) [@markschmucker](https://meta.discourse.org/u/markschmucker)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727/1 "2026-01-30T05:41:24Z")

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Most of my summaries are failing, because some of the text sent to the LLM is reversed(!). If the post is simply:

> This post is to test whether sections of text get reversed in the payload sent to the AI endpoint.

it actually sends this text to the LLM:

> This post is to test whether sections of text get .tniopdne IA eht ot tnes daolyap eht ni desrever

In this simple test, it folds or reflects exactly at the middle of the string.

I do realize this sounds crazy, so here is a screenshot and the corresponding raw\_request\_payload from the ai\_api\_audit\_logs:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/1/7/a17e217acf93e4a4315b896e0337dcee14d116d0.png)

> **ai\_api\_audit\_logs.raw\_request\_payload**
>
> ```plaintext
> {
> "model": "claude-sonnet-4-0",
> "max_tokens": 64000,
> "messages": [
> {
> "role": "user",
> "content": "Here are the posts inside <input></input> XML tags:\n\n<input>1) user1 said: I love Mondays 2) user2 said: I hate Mondays</input>\n\nGenerate a concise, coherent summary of the text above maintaining the original language."
> },
> {
> "role": "assistant",
> "content": "{\"summary\":\"Two users are sharing their feelings toward Mondays. [user1](/t/-/64255/1) hates them, while [user2](/t/-/64255/2) loves them.\"}"
> },
> {
> "role": "user",
> "content": "The discussion title is: Testing Text Reversal.\n\nCategory: testing.\n\n\nHere are the posts, inside <input></input> XML tags:\n\n<input>\n (1 admin said: This post is to test whether sections of text get .tniopdne IA eht ot tnes daolyap eht ni desrever \n</input>\n\nGenerate a concise, coherent summary of the text above maintaining the original language."
> },
> {
> "role": "assistant",
> "content": "{"
> }
> ],
> "system": "You are an advanced summarization bot that generates concise, coherent summaries of provided text.\nYou are also capable of enhancing an existing summaries by incorporating additional posts if asked to.\n\n- Only include the summary, without any additional commentary.\n- You understand and generate Discourse forum Markdown; including links, _italics_, **bold**.\n- Maintain the original language of the text being summarized.\n- Aim for summaries to be 400 words or less.\n- Each post is formatted as \"<POST_NUMBER>) <USERNAME> <MESSAGE>\"\n- Cite specific noteworthy posts using the format [DESCRIPTION](/t/-/64255/POST_NUMBER)\n- Example: link to the 6th post by jane: [agreed with](/t/-/64255/6)\n- Example: link to the 13th post by joe: [joe](/t/-/64255/13)\n- When formatting usernames use [USERNAME](/t/-/64255/POST_NUMBER)\n\nFormat your response as a JSON object with a single key named \"summary\", which has the summary as the value.\nYour output should be in the following format:\n\n{\"summary\": \"xx\"}\n\nWhere \"xx\" is replaced by the summary.\nreply with valid JSON only",
> "stream": true
> }
> 
> ```

Interestingly, Sonnet refuses to summarize many topics, because it thinks the reversed text is an effort to obfuscate or get around the rules.

I’m up to date at 3.6.0.beta3-latest.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727/3 "2026-01-30T16:39:54Z")

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> [@markschmucker](#):
>
> I’m up to date at 3.6.0.beta3-latest.

That is not up to date. Please update to latest, this was fixed early December.

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/36498](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/36498)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![markschmucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/markschmucker/32/141599_2.png) [@markschmucker](https://meta.discourse.org/u/markschmucker)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 11:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727/4 "2026-01-30T23:34:56Z")

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Thanks, I will update. But mine does say it’s up to date, on all devices, even after a hard refresh. Please let me know if I should report that separately.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/f/b/afb2ddf9f19b54702521d77ca8c08d60610de898.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-gets-mysteriously-reversed-in-ai-summarization-payload/394727/5 "2026-01-30T23:41:49Z")

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I think this was also reported here

> [@RFC: A new versioning strategy for Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rfc-a-new-versioning-strategy-for-discourse/383536/48):
>
> A production quirk. My self-hosted Discourse was still showing 3.6.0.beta2 as the most recent release. In the Admin Dashboard, the green smiley face indicated I was on the latest release, but in reality, I was two releases behind. I performed a manual update and am now on 2025.12.0-latest. Is there something you can do in the release tool to flag 3.6.0.beta2 as outdated and require an update?