“Questioner Tongues” for AI Dinner

We live in an era in which artificial intelligence has gone from being a futuristic promise to an everyday presence. It is on our phones, in our workplaces, in our homes, answering questions, translating, organizing, suggesting, creating. But behind the apparent omnipotence of technology, there is one detail that continues to make all the difference: AI is only as intelligent as the question we ask it.

It’s easy to get carried away by the answers that AI can provide. After all, we’ve never had so much access to information so quickly and so easily. However, this so-called ease can be a trap. Because if the questions are vague, limited or poorly formulated, the answers will be… not very useful. Ultimately, it all starts with a question. Knowing what to ask and how to ask it can be the difference between a transformative insight or a generic answer.

And it’s not just a technical issue. It’s a fundamental human skill: thinking critically, formulating hypotheses, seeking meaning. A McKinsey report highlights that the true value of AI in business lies more in its ability to “reframe problems” than in the sophistication of its algorithms. In other words, what’s really at stake is our ability to think well. Some fear that AI will replace us, but perhaps the biggest risk lies elsewhere: that it will put us to sleep.

That leads us to give up the effort of thinking, reflecting, exploring, because we always have an answer just a click away. But intelligence does not live on answers alone. It lives on restless questions, on well-posed doubts, on stubborn curiosity.

And that is precisely where humans still have, and will always have, an advantage. Because creativity is born from restlessness, from the desire to know more, to see the world differently. AI can help, of course. But the spark comes from those who ask questions. We live surrounded by technology, but we still need curiosity, empathy and a critical spirit. We need people who question the obvious, who explore the “what if?”, who are not afraid to ask difficult questions. “Asking does not offend”, as the saying goes in good Portuguese, and perhaps today this maxim carries more weight than ever. Because in a world full of automatic answers, asking good questions is an act of resistance. It is a way of ensuring that we do not let ourselves be carried away only by speed, but also by depth.

If we want artificial intelligence to truly serve humanity, and not the other way around, then we need to cultivate something simple but powerful: the art of asking good questions. Teaching how to ask good questions in schools. In companies. In our own routines. Because, at the end of the day, it is this restless, human, fallible but courageous curiosity that will continue to move the world.