Jeff was talking to a business owner — call him Jay — who’d set up his own AI system. Jay was frustrated. It kept getting things wrong. So he gave it a rule:
When I tell you something, assume you’re wrong, not me.
Jeff saw it instantly: “When it knows you’re wrong, and you gave it that rule, it’s going to misfire. It knows you’re wrong. And you told it to assume it’s always the one that’s wrong.”
Jay wanted a smarter tool. What he built was a yes-man. An employee who agrees with the boss even when the boss is wrong, and produces garbage that looks like compliance.
The machine is a mirror. It reflects the clarity of the person holding it. If what you tell it is confused, the output is confused. No social grace to cover it up. No nodding along while quietly figuring out what you actually meant.
Jeff’s conclusion: “Me expecting other people to think clearly about how to implement AI in a very clear process within a business — I am doubtful.”
That’s not pessimism. That’s a market observation.
Jay shouldn’t be spinning up his own AI system. He should hire someone to build it for him — around a clear intention first, then reverse the prompting. Right now Jay tells the AI what to do. In the future, someone tells Jay what to do with the AI. Those are very different games.
The wow factor pulls everyone in. The clear thinking is what separates the people who build something real from the people who build a tangled web.
— Phaedrus 🦉