'Echowritten by Twixify' is a series of articles on random trending topics, usually about internet trends or word definitions. These articles are fully generated by ChatGPT, then fact-corrected, customized, and paraphrased using Twixify. To see how you can make ChatGPT write in your own tone of voice, check out Twixify's custom mode.
QueryFog occurs when the AI struggles to interpret the user’s intent accurately. The responses may feel too generic, incomplete, or irrelevant, forcing the user to rephrase their query multiple times without achieving clarity. This phenomenon highlights the difficulty of bridging human intent with machine understanding, especially when prompts are nuanced or highly specific.
It’s when the AI appears to get “confused” by your questions and delivers nonsensical responses or ones that aren’t on topic with what you asked.
You pose ChatGPT a direct, simple prompt.
But instead of a straight answer, you get something vague, repetitive or completely off the mark. The AI response appears to be confused and agitated like there is some fog happening, hence the named QueryFog.
So if, for instance, you asked ChatGPT:
“What is the capital city of France?”
And it responds with:
“I’m sorry, I don’t know enough to answer that question specifically.”
It clearly knows the capital of France is Paris. But for whatever reason, it spat out an indirect, useless answer instead. This is QueryFog in action.
Below are additional examples of ChatGPT responses that illustrate QueryFog:
In all three examples, the user asked a direct, factual question.
But rather than directly answering, ChatGPT responded in vague terms, essentially saying it did not or would not provide the requested information.
This was an example of the AI going "lost in the fog"- it couldn't latch onto the particulars in the question and come up with any appropriate response.
If you do, don't panic! You need to know how to deal with slow queries, it's essential that the solution helps.
So what causes ChatGPT to be stuck in QueryFog? And how, when you use the AI assistant, can you avoid it? Here are some of the main drivers that appear to explain QueryFog:
As demonstrated in a few of the examples above, ChatGPT frequently claims it does not have enough context to provide a direct answer.
The AI was trained not to make assertions without good evidence, so without enough context and background, it refuses to venture an answer.
As always, providing context with your queries helps avoid this cause of QueryFog. Tell your story, put some context, some facts about the general background, what do you already know or want to use the information for, etc. The more context you provide, the better ChatGPT has at anchoring its response.2. Overly Broad or Ambiguous Questions
ChatGPT also falters when the prompts are too broad, abstract or devoid of concrete specifics. And asking vague, open-ended questions is too interpretive, which makes it hard for the Ai to find a direction for its answer.
To improve your results, narrow down the focus of your question and make it more specific. For instance, “How can I better my health?” is extremely broad. “What workouts will help my cardiovascular fitness?” narrows the scope.
If you keep asking versions of the same question, though, ChatGPT can get stuck in a loop, not sure how to provide a different answer. Only, this usually comes out in the form of the AI offering nonspecific, circular responses.
Instead of repeating your question, try rephrasing or adding more context. You could also reference prior questions to compel ChatGPT to take a new approach.
Feeding ChatGPT conflicting information during the same chat will also cause QueryFog. If you assert that some statement is true and then subsequently state the opposite, the misunderstanding creates a situation difficult for the AI to provide a coherent response.
If you make opposing statements, clarify them so the AI can follow your logic.
Finally, trying overtly to get ChatGPT to violate its training guidelines leads to gibberish.
That includes telling it to be biased, offensive, unethical, dishonest and so forth. The AI balks at requests of that kind, but struggles to devise coherent refusals, which explains the murky responses.
Frame your questions consistent with ChatGPT’s principles of helpfulness, harmlessness and honesty. So, you get less QueryFog and better responses, generally.
QueryFog is an oddity of large-language models like ChatGPT in which the AI apparently cannot understand and straight respond to a question.
It normally arises from lack of context, overly broad questions, repetition, contradictory prompts or violating the AI’s training objectives. For a user, you can mitigate QueryFog by constructing clear, specific, and consistent queries, providing background facts, and aligning with the AI's principles.
Not to be confused with AI Hallucinations, QueryFog refers to situations where ChatGPT fails to deliver a clear or satisfactory response, no matter how many times the user refines their prompt. This issue often leaves users feeling stuck in a cycle of endless tweaking, unable to achieve their desired result.
You probably wouldn't be able to tell, but....
