Judgment in the Age of AI · Article 45
AI commonly continues from the premises embedded in a question. Asked how to make a plan succeed faster, it may optimise speed without first asking whether the goal is right, the plan feasible or success defined by the right person.
Turn assumptions over
| Word in the question | Reverse question |
|---|---|
| Best | Best for whom, by which criterion? |
| Faster | Is speed more important than quality, safety or reversibility? |
| Everyone knows | Which people, supported by what evidence? |
| Causes | Is this correlation or causal evidence? |
| Should | Is the basis law, convention, values or preference? |
Rewrite one question three ways
- Supportive: If the premise holds, what is the strongest plan?
- Opposing: If the central premise is false, what evidence would appear?
- Observer: How would someone unaffected by the outcome describe the problem?
You can also tell AI not to answer yet, but to list the facts it must assume, information it lacks and variables that would change the conclusion. You then decide which assumptions deserve verification.
Prompt quality is not only the amount of context supplied; it is whether the original question is allowed to fail.
References
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