Self-ask
Prompting the model to ask itself clarifying questions before answering — a form of introspection.
Think of it like
Before answering, asking "What information do I need?" and "Have I understood the question correctly?"
Example
"User: Is Paris in France? Model: Do I know where Paris is? Yes, it's the capital of France. Is France a country in Europe? Yes. So yes, Paris is in France."
How it actually works
Self-ask is a form of chain-of-thought. The model reasons by questioning itself, making reasoning explicit. Effective for factual questions and knowledge retrieval. Less clear if it helps with open-ended tasks.
For product teams
Improves accuracy on factual questions.
For engineers
Prompt with: "Before answering, ask yourself...". Monitor for circular reasoning.
Related
- Chain of thought — Form of chain-of-thought reasoning.
- ReAct prompting — Related to ReAct prompting.
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