Why AI told me to stop eating batteries

ChatGPT quite baffled me by commanding me to stop eating batteries and definitely not put one in the microwave again. It sent a page of instructions on how to remove a battery after it had been heated in an oven, and asked whether there was any burning, irritation, or metallic taste in my mouth. It urged me to get to a doctor on the double.

“Tell me what kind of battery it was? Tell me what exactly happened,” it said.It turned out the word “baguette” had autocorrected to “batteries” in my prompt, which was about whether microwaving this French delight would make it chewy on the inside. Apparently, it would. But for a moment there, both the chatbot and the user thought the other had lost it.After the battery-baguette incident, I decided to pay more attention to the way I prompted and follow the recommended guidelines.The most important rule, and you'll find it in all expert recommendations, is to be specific almost to a fault.

Specify the exact goal rather than leaving the AI to guess, or it will veer towards errors and hallucinations. It's often said that prompting is just asking clearly.If you want writing, images, videos, apps, solutions to problems or anything else, don't just throw the subject at the AI. Spell it out in some detail.

Don't say “Edit this image”, but think about what you really need and ask. If there are several steps to the result you want, explain that as well. A thought-out, clear prompt takes longer to 'engineer', but it saves you time later.

Remember that AI isn't like Google once was; you can't pop in a few keywords and expect magic. If the request is vague, AI predicts and guesses; if the prompt is clear, it performs. Treat it like a literal intern.At the same time, don't give so much detail