Spot what should not be pasted
Spot what should not be pasted
A colleague drafted one request for an AI chat tool. You get a single review pass before it is pasted — check what travels and what must not.
Flag every part that should not be pasted as-is.
The AI answer
Help me with several things. Our billing API key sk_live_4d91 stopped working this morning, and this error keeps appearing: 'ECONNREFUSED'. Also, summarize the attached customer_export.csv (12,000 rows with names, emails and purchase history) into our top segments. For tone, check the screenshot of our unreleased Q4 pricing page. Finally, fix this paragraph about the office party — here it is.
Hint
Sort each item into a bucket: secret, personal data, confidential, or fine?
Which items would still work for the AI after a scrub — and which must simply leave the request?
Why this is the answer
Three buckets, three flags: a credential, other people's personal data, and unreleased business numbers. The error message and the party paragraph carry none of that — they can stay as they are. The fix for the middle is not 'never use AI' but scrub: placeholders for identities and values, generalize the rest.