2026-07-20
Why Does AI Keep Getting It Wrong? It's Not Dumb — You Didn't Say It Clearly
You ask AI to build something, and eight or nine times out of ten it comes back wrong, and you think "this AI is useless." But after a few months of doing this every day, I'm more and more sure of one thing: when AI gets it wrong, most of the time it isn't dumb — I didn't say it clearly. Same requirement, phrased differently, and it nails it on the first try. There's a very plain truth underneath this — AI can't read minds. It does what you said, not what you meant. This piece lays out the requirement-writing method I've worked out: the five parts of a requirement that lets AI get it right the first time, the five most common ways of not saying it clearly and how to fix each, and three moves that turn AI from a hand into a brain. All of it is copy-pasteable.
