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GL-A-038Sheet 038FOR CONSTRUCTIONA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Never show a number the software can't explain.

FOR CONSTRUCTION · SHOW THE REASON · AI OUTPUT · STRUCTURED RESPONSES

Drawing sheet 038: Never show a number the software can't explain.

General notes

  1. 01A model can produce a score for anything. "Lead quality: 82." The number looks like knowledge. It is a guess wearing a font.
  2. 02Ask the model for a reason field beside every value, in the same structured response. Refuse to render a value whose reason is empty.
  3. 03People forgive a wrong number with a visible reason. They do not forgive a confident number with none. Design for the second case.

a guess wearing a font.

RDetail · the response shapeShape, not a screen
{ "score": 82, "reason": "" }                              // does not render
{ "score": 82, "reason": "asked for a self-hosted option, 2 days ago" }  // renders

As posted

Never show a number the software cannot explain.

A model can produce a score for anything. Lead quality: 82. Market position: third of five. The number looks like knowledge. It is a guess wearing a font.

I caught my own product doing it, and the fix turned out to be structural rather than cosmetic. When you ask a model for a value, ask for the reason in the same structured response. A field beside every number. Then refuse to render a value whose reason is empty. Not "hide the reason behind a tooltip". Refuse to render.

Two things happen. The model gets worse at inventing numbers, because it has to write down why, and an empty why is easy to catch. And people start trusting the numbers that do appear, because each arrives with the sentence that produced it. "Asked for a self-hosted option, two days ago" is a reason a founder can act on. "82" is not.

People forgive a wrong number with a visible reason. They do not forgive a confident number with none. Design for the second case.

For construction. Sheet 038.

Read with

  • Sheet 033 · An invented number wearing a disclaimer.