The Consequence Ladder: Use Progressive Discipline to Make AI Follow Your Instructions

A structured approach to fix AI's selective hearing problem

Dave Meier

and

Emma Brooks

Aug 12, 2024

∙ Paid

Difficulty: ★☆☆
Purpose: Make AI follow your instructions
Impact: More precise AI output that

You're working with AI to create a social post for 𝕏/Twitter.

Simple task, right?

Then you spot them — hashtags. Everywhere. You didn't ask for hashtags. You don't want hashtags. Yet there they are, like digital weeds in your content garden. Maybe you tell AI to “not use hashtags”. But it just won’t listen to you.

It's so annoying you'd consider trading your computer for a trained monkey with a typewriter.

But it's not just hashtags. Maybe it's emojis in your business emails or unnecessary introductions in your reports. Whatever it is, AI seems to have selective hearing sometimes.

Let’s fix that right now and get AI to do exactly what you tell it:

The Obvious Isn't Always Obvious (to AI)

What's crystal clear to you might be fuzzy to AI.

You might think, "I told it no hashtags, why isn't it listening?" But AI isn't ignoring you on purpose. It's just not grasping the importance of your request.

Apply a Management Technique to AI

Progressive Discipline is a structured approach to addressing performance issues in workplaces. It starts with mild corrections and escalates to more serious consequences if the behaviour persists.

This same principle will revolutionise your AI interactions.