Debate: Should AI tools explain their reasoning or just give answers?

I was using an AI to help plan routes for my delivery job, and a coworker said it's useless if it can't show why it chose certain roads. But I find the quick answer more helpful than a long explanation. Which do you prefer for practical tasks - transparency or speed?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_rivera441mo ago

You really trust a tool you can't question at all? If it sends you into a traffic jam one day and you have NO clue why, what do you even do then? I need to know if it's picking roads because of construction updates or just because they look shorter on a map. Speed means NOTHING if you can't verify the reasoning later when something goes wrong.

blake_smith1mo ago

iris_rivera44 makes a good point about transparency. For a delivery job where traffic changes every day, I get why she'd want to know the why behind the route. But for my own use, quick answers win most of the time. I just want the fastest option and I'll deal with the consequences later. If the AI messes up once, I'm not going to waste time digging through its logic. I'll just ask it again or pick a different route myself. Different tools for different people, I guess.