0.4.2 The checkpoint
- Approved by
- Panaversity ·
In everyday life. Pilots use a checklist before every takeoff. They use it on clear days too, and after thousands of flights. The checklist is not there because pilots are careless. It is there because skilled people skip steps easily.
What you will learn. The four checkpoint questions, the step that follows them, and how to use them on any topic.
Why it matters. Speed makes AI useful. Speed also makes it easy to stop thinking. The checkpoint brings the thinking back deliberately.
The four questions
What is the checkpoint?
A checkpoint is a planned stop. You stop after you receive an AI output (what the AI gives back) and before you act on it. Ana's five minutes were a checkpoint.
Figure 0.4.2. The checkpoint comes between receiving an output and acting on it.
| Question | What you look for | In Dave's memo |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What exactly is claimed? | The statement you would act on, in one sentence | Taking every discount saves about $42,264 a year |
| 2. What is it based on? | The evidence behind it, and whether you can see it | One month, times 2%, times 12 |
| 3. What is assumed? | What must be true but is not stated | Every vendor offers 2%. September is a normal month. Paying early costs nothing |
| 4. What would change it? | The fact that would change the answer if it were different | Some vendors offer no discount, or Brightline must borrow to pay early |
For question 1, check the words too. A word can mean one thing to you and another to the AI. "Sales" can mean orders taken, or it can mean money received. Make sure you and the AI mean the same thing before you judge the claim.
Question 4 only helps if you then check that fact. Naming the fact is the first step. Checking it completes the checkpoint.
What comes after the four questions?
Who decides. Write down who is responsible for the decision, and what you recommend to them. This person is the decision owner. AI can recommend. A person decides, and the decision is written down.
How long should a checkpoint take?
As long as the decision deserves. A lunch suggestion takes two seconds. A payment policy takes an hour and a spreadsheet. The rule is simple: the harder a mistake is to undo, the more checking it needs. Chapter 7 uses the same rule to decide how much freedom an AI worker gets.
A checkpoint is more than careful reading. When you read, you ask "Do I understand this?" At a checkpoint, you ask "Is this true?" And the outputs that need a checkpoint most are the ones that look right.
The same questions, outside finance
Does the checkpoint work on other topics?
Yes. Sara is a teacher. Her school has a new four-page policy on mobile phones. She asks AI to summarize it in a short note for parents. The summary says: "Phones are not allowed at school at any time." Before she sends it, she runs the checkpoint.
| Question | Sara's answer |
|---|---|
| 1. What exactly is claimed? | Phones are not allowed at school at any time |
| 2. What is it based on? | The four-page policy, which the AI read |
| 3. What is assumed? | The summary did not leave out any exceptions |
| 4. What would change it? | An exception somewhere in the policy |
Sara opens the policy and searches for the word "except". She finds two exceptions. Students may use phones at lunch. Students with a medical need may use them at any time. The summary was wrong in a way that matters to parents. Sara corrects it, and then she sends it. She is the decision owner, because the note goes out under her name.
The topic changed. The four questions did not.
Key words
- Output: what the AI gives back to you.
- Checkpoint: a planned stop before you act on an AI output, with four questions.
- Decision owner: the person who is responsible for the decision.
Check yourself
Question 1 / 9
0 answered
Which list is the checkpoint?
- Owner
- Panaversity