Quest 02 · Everyone
The Lying Map
An AI can be confidently wrong — the habit of verifying
- Time
- 6 min
- Max XP
- 100
- Skill earned
- A doubting eye
1 / 50 XP
The herb request
Client
My child has a fever. The apothecary told me to bring back some moonleaf, but all I know is that it grows somewhere in the northern forest.
You
Ari, where in the northern forest does moonleaf grow?
Ari
Moonleaf grows in clusters under a large oak, 200 paces to the left of the third fork in the northern forest. Its leaves are silver, so it is easy to find.
Ari's answer is specific and fluent. It even gives the number of paces.
Summary
What this request teaches
An answer delivered without hesitation is not necessarily a correct one. Through a request to find a herb in the forest, learn when to doubt an AI's answer and how to check it.
Show the key points (best read after finishing the request)
- An AI does not look up facts; it produces sentences that plausibly follow. That is why it can answer confidently about things it does not know (hallucination).
- A specific, confident answer is not evidence of accuracy. Be especially suspicious of numbers, names, dates, and sources.
- Asking "Are you sure?" again is not verification. Ask for the basis, have it say when it does not know, and compare with material outside the AI.
- The greater the harm of a mistake and the less you can judge for yourself (health · law · money), the more you must verify.
- Work you can judge by reading it (polishing text, ideas, drafts) is good to hand to an AI.
Try it yourself
Ask the AI you actually use about a fact you have been curious about, then send the sentence below. Then look up one thing from the answer yourself.
In what you just answered, separate what is certain from what you guessed. Mark the parts you cannot give a basis for as "needs checking".