When we talk to artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT, we often wonder if the way we ask questions affects the answers we get.
Researchers at USC Information Sciences Institute, led by Abel Salinas and Fred Morstatter, decided to explore this curious aspect.
They discovered that even small changes in how we phrase our questions can lead to different answers from AI, especially when we’re looking for specific information.
The team set out to understand how reliable AI’s responses are when we tweak our questions a bit. They tested four different kinds of changes:
- Asking in Specific Formats: Sometimes, we want answers in a certain way, like a list or a table. The researchers checked if asking for a specific format changes the AI’s answers.
- Tiny Tweaks: What if we add an extra space, or start with “Hello” or end with “Thank you”? They looked into these minor adjustments.
- Jailbreaks: This means trying to get around AI’s rules, perhaps by asking it to imagine it’s someone else or to tackle tricky topics.
- Offering Tips: They even tried saying things like “I’ll give you a tip for a perfect answer” to see if it influenced the responses.
They tested these changes across different tasks, such as spotting grammar mistakes or identifying jokes, to see how the AI performed.
Their findings were quite eye-opening. Here’s a brief rundown:
- Format Matters: Simply asking for a response in a certain format led to changes in at least 10% of the AI’s answers.
- Small Tweaks Have Big Impacts: Even adding a space or a polite greeting made the AI change its answers more often than you’d think.
- Jailbreaks Can Confuse AI: Trying to bypass AI’s filters with creative phrasing resulted in the most varied responses, but not always accurate ones.
- Tipping Doesn’t Tip the Scale: Whether they offered a tip or not didn’t really change the accuracy of the AI’s answers.
The results suggest that even small tweaks in how we ask questions can make AI respond differently.
This is fascinating because it shows AI, like ChatGPT, might pick up on nuances in language that we don’t expect it to notice.
However, these changes don’t always lead to better or more accurate answers. In fact, sometimes they can make the answers less accurate.
Key Takeaways
For those of us using AI, the message is clear: simpler is often better. Keeping our questions straightforward tends to yield the most reliable answers.
This study opens the door to more research on how to make AI understand us better, regardless of the small changes in how we communicate with it.
It also highlights the importance of designing AI systems that can handle a bit of variation in how questions are asked, ensuring that everyone can get accurate and useful answers, no matter how they phrase their queries.
Source: University of Southern California.
