The One Question You Should Never Ask AI

Published on November 3, 2025

Even state-of-the-art models still produce confident errors. OpenAI’s model card says that GPT-5 shows a 26% error rate, illustrating why regulated environments cannot treat model output as reliable without overlying governance. This brief covers the one follow-up question you should not ask when AI is wrong - and two practical alternatives that create a more reliable, audit-friendly workflow.

Key takeaways

• The question to avoid: When AI gives an answer you know is wrong, don’t ask “Why did you get that wrong?” Generative models can’t reliably diagnose root cause of a prior error after-the-fact, however they will often generate a plausible-sounding explanation which is highly misleading.

• Instead, re-ask the same question but with additional context: Ask the same question again and add the key constraint or context you believe was missing the first time.

• Then, force an audit trail: Ask it to show its steps and provide a confidence rating for each step. This tends to reduce leaps in logic and produces a structured trail that’s easier for risk, audit, or compliance to review.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/3IWBSMDEkUE