Make AI ask three questions first, don't outsource your judgment

Seeing "Don't ask ChatGPT what I should do," my first reaction was: nowadays even making choices requires learning prompt engineering first.

In principle, the model isn't a referee making decisions for you; it's more like performing conditional sampling within existing context. You ask "Which one should I choose?", and it completes the most common, most pleasing-to-the-ear answer. You ask "Ask me three key questions first," and it at least forces you to supplement goals, constraints, and risks. That prompt in Tom's Guide probably means this: between A and B, let the model ask the three most important questions first, then recommend based on the answers. ZDNET also calls this interactive prompting. Back-and-forth questioning can reduce one-off misunderstandings.

However, I'm a bit wary. Nicole Leffer, on the other hand, says don't rely too much on having AI ask clarifying questions in chat. This concept needs to be broken down. Back-and-forth questioning might complicate simple matters, or it might lead the model to follow your wording. Prompts are just the first step in returning decision-making power to you. Write down the questions, answers, and assumptions, do a small counterfactual check: if a certain condition changes, does the recommendation still hold? Don't hand over "What should I do?" to the model. And don't assume that because "it asked me three questions," you've already thought it through clearly.

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📌 This article is compiled from TechRadar, original link: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/dont-ask-chatgpt-what-should-i-do-this-simple-prompt-helps-you-make-better-decisions-yourself

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