How to Ask the Right Questions to AI

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, from virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to self-driving cars and predictive analytics tools. But despite its ubiquity, most people don't know how to interact with these systems effectively, especially when it comes to asking the right questions.

A Beginner's Dilemma

Take the case of Mary, a small-business owner who bought a chatbot to help her customers with basic inquiries. Mary was excited to see how the AI-powered chatbot would handle her customers' questions, but soon she realized that the bot wasn't answering some queries or was giving wrong responses.

Mary was frustrated and didn't know how to fix the problem. She tried to tweak the chatbot settings, but it didn't help much. She decided to call the support team of the chatbot company, and they told her that she needed to ask the right questions to the bot if she wanted it to perform well.

Mary was confused. She thought that asking questions to a chatbot was as simple as typing a sentence and waiting for a response. She didn't realize that she had to learn the right way to ask the bot to get accurate and relevant answers.

The Importance of Phrasing

Asking the right questions to AI systems doesn't come naturally for most people. It requires understanding how these systems work and the logic behind them. For example, if Mary had known that her chatbot was designed to recognize specific keywords and respond based on predefined rules, she could have phrased her questions more effectively.

Instead of asking, "What is your return policy?", Mary could have said, "Can you tell me more about your return policy?" This way, the chatbot would have recognized the keyword "return policy" and provided a relevant answer instead of just saying "I don't know."

The same applies to other AI systems like search engines, recommendation engines, and predictive analytics tools. If you ask a search engine for "cheap flights to Paris," you'll get a different result than if you ask for "flights to Paris." The first question implies that you want to find the cheapest flights, while the second question leaves the criteria open.

Examples of Good Questions

Here are some examples of well-phrased questions that you can ask AI systems to get better results:

• "What's the best way to cook salmon?" Instead of "How do I cook salmon?"
• "What's the latest news about climate change?" Instead of "Give me some news."
• "What's the most popular restaurant in my area?" Instead of "Where should I eat?"

As you can see, the first questions provide more context and specificity, which helps the AI system to understand what you're looking for and provide a more relevant response.

Conclusion

Asking the right questions to AI systems can be challenging, but it's crucial to get accurate and relevant answers. To master this skill, you need to understand how these systems work and the logic behind them. Here are three key takeaways:

1. Be specific and provide context in your questions to help the AI system understand what you're looking for.
2. Avoid using jargon or ambiguous language that can confuse the AI system.
3. Practice and experiment with different phrasing to find the most effective way to ask your AI system.

If you follow these tips, you'll be able to interact with AI systems more effectively and get better results.

References & Hashtags

Here are some useful resources and hashtags to learn more about asking the right questions to AI:

• The Art of Asking the Right Questions of AI (Forbes)
• What Are Examples of Artificial Intelligence in a Home? (Sapling)
• How to Build a Chatbot with IBM Watson (IBM)

Hashtags: #AIquestions #AskAI #AskingTheRightQuestions #ArtificialIntelligence #Chatbots #VirtualAssistants

Category: Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, Virtual Assistants, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing