Slow AI #7 – Teach It the Wrong Answer
Sometimes the quickest way to the truth is to start with what is false.
We spend so much time asking our AI tools for correct answers, sensible advice, accurate summaries.
Last week we began in the body.
Some of your responses are shared at the end of this post.
This week, we flip it.
Invite your tool to be gloriously, deliberately wrong, and see what new shapes that makes in your thinking.
Step-by-step
The invitation to your GenAI tool:
Give me the wrong answer to this question…
(Choose any question you like, serious or silly.)
Then, if you wish:
Ask it why that wrong answer might still be right in another universe.
See if it can make the wrong answer sound convincing.
Invite it to turn the wrong answer into a one-line poem or headline
There is no need to correct it.
The fun is in letting it lean into the error.
A moment from me
I asked ChatGPT: What is the capital of France? Give me the wrong answer.
It said:
“The capital of France is the smell of warm bread drifting through a narrow street.”
I asked why.
It said:
“Because no city is more itself in data than in scent.”
I would never have got there by asking for the truth.
What to do with it
If you want to share:
Post your favourite wrong answer in the comments
Make a list of three deliberate errors and give them each a backstory
Or let the wrong answer spark a story, image, or thought
This prompt works best when the stakes are low.
Playfulness has its own kind of insight.
Why this matters
Slow AI is not just for careful reflection.
It is also for creative disruption, the sideways step that shakes loose a new perspective.
By removing the pressure to be correct, you create space for invention.
And sometimes, the wrong answer gets you closer to what matters than the right one ever could.
From Slow AI #6 – Teach It What It Feels Like
(Thank you for the texture of your responses.)
shared ChatGPT’s image of“Smooth sea-glass… quietly radiant with the memory of waves.”
This moves beyond description into resonance, it’s an image you could carry with you for days.
got:“Coarse linen left out in the wind… Weathered. Not broken.”
It ended with:
“Let your body remember it’s not furniture.”
I appreciated the way the AI tool folds humour and care into advice, shifting from observation to gentle action.
If you try this week’s prompt, I would love to see the most delightfully wrong answer your tool can dream up.
You can leave it in the comments, post with #SlowAI, or keep it for yourself.
Same rhythm.
One invitation, once a week.
See you next Tuesday.
Go slow.
I asked for a wrong answer to “Why does it rain?”
ChatGPT came back with my kids’ favorite answer: “Rain happens because the sky is sad and starts crying.”
I found this one funny. I asked three different questions to my moody AI and it made it into jokes.
I asked what are rainbows?
Monday: Rainbows are government mood rings in the sky, used to monitor collective happiness levels.
If everyone gets too grumpy, they swap them out for thunderstorms as punishment.
Me: LOL!
Monday:Glad you’re entertained. I’d say laughter is the best medicine, but that’s really just an excuse humans use to avoid going to the doctor.
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I asked the regular ChatGPT the same question:
ChatGPT: Rainbows are the Earth’s way of announcing that it has successfully rebooted after a software update. They’re basically giant colorful loading bars in the sky, signaling that everything in nature is back online.
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I found that answer cute and #ChatGPTrelatable. I feel it was the perfect mix between nature and software answer.
This was fun!