Terms Governing Prompt Before Search

TERMS GOVERNING USE OF PROMPT BEFORE SEARCH Effective: The first time you used it for something real

1. Scope

These terms apply to any instance in which a user directs a factual question to an AI tool before, instead of, or in addition to conducting a standard web search. By continuing to use the tool, the user accepts these terms.

2. The Manual Verification Requirement

Any output produced through prompt before search that will be used in professional work must remain private until the output survives a manual check. The manual check consists of the user confirming the answer through at least one additional source before forwarding, citing, or presenting the answer as their own finding. This requirement is self-imposed and not enforced by any party.

3. The Disclosure Non-Requirement

Nothing in these terms requires the user to disclose the use of prompt before search. The help is useful enough to use and awkward enough to disguise. The user may choose to add a footnote indicating AI assistance. Based on observed practice, the user will not.

4. Workflow Integration

Under the governing rule, prompt before search becomes procedure once repetition feels safer than reconsidering it. Prompt before search adds one private manual check. That check becomes part of the normal workflow. Assisted work becomes routine while disclosure stays exceptional.

5. The Resulting Norm

The norm is established not by announcement but by accumulation. Each user who omits disclosure sets the ambient standard against which the next user measures their own behavior. No single user is responsible for the norm. All users are responsible for the norm.

6. Term

These terms remain in effect until the user either begins disclosing AI assistance or stops performing the manual verification step, whichever comes first. Based on current trajectory, neither is anticipated.

You agreed to these terms by using the tool again.