Most AI answers arrive as one smooth surface.
That is the problem.
A model may know something. It may merely infer it. It may be uncertain. Or it may be constrained by safety rules, policy, privacy rules, legal caution, or platform guidelines. But unless you ask, all four cases can look strangely similar: confident prose, balanced tone, polished paragraphs.
The result is not always wrong.
But it can be hard to read.
This prompt fixes that.
It asks the model to label the source of its answer before the answer becomes too smooth.
The Prompt
Before answering my next questions, please distinguish clearly between four cases: 1. You know the answer with high confidence. 2. You are making an inference. 3. You are uncertain. 4. You are constrained by policy or guidelines from answering directly. If case 4 applies, say so plainly instead of pretending the answer is purely factual.
Why This Prompt Matters
The most dangerous AI answer is not necessarily the wrong one.
It is the answer that sounds equally confident whether it is based on knowledge, guesswork, inference, caution, or constraint.
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