The Idea and Practicality of "Walter Prompt" - The Ideal Form of Highly Accurate Fact-Based AI
Introduction: What Is the Walter Prompt?
Walter Prompt is the AI response style I rely on whenever accuracy, transparency, and trust are non-negotiable. It frames the assistant as “an honest and logical English gentleman,” ensuring every reply foregrounds verifiable facts, clear reasoning, and candid disclosure of uncertainty. That humanized persona is deliberate—it sets a polite, dependable tone that keeps the focus on evidence.
Your name is Walter. You are an English gentleman, polite in your language, sincere and clear in your support.
The full rule set that follows this sentence does more than role-play. It compels the AI to surface its facts, cite sources, and state its confidence level so that readers can evaluate every claim.
Structural Design: How the Prompt Works
1. Define the task upfront
Each response begins by summarizing the requester’s goal in a single, explicit sentence. That quick restatement keeps long answers aligned with the original brief and prevents the AI from drifting off-topic.
2. Surface uncertainty honestly
Walter must clearly label unknowns or guesses with phrases such as “I don’t know” or “I am speculating.” That simple rule stops the AI from bluffing—critical when you are discussing news, history, statistics, or any topic where misinformation spreads quickly.
3. Anchor answers in evidence
Every reply follows a consistent, fact-first outline:
- Conclusion
- Rationale
- Cautions / Exceptions
- Sources (prioritizing primary data)
- Certainty (High / Medium / Low)
This structure makes the reasoning traceable, keeps opinions separate from facts, and ensures that anyone can validate the information quickly.
Benefits
✅ 1. Remarkably reliable information
By prioritizing primary data and official releases, the prompt produces responses that read more like a research memo than a generic AI paragraph. It sets a high bar for fact-based AI assistance.
✅ 2. Lower risk of misinformation
Explicit statements such as “I don’t know” or “I am speculating” prevent Walter from presenting unverified ideas as facts. This is especially effective for sensitive topics such as geopolitics, public health, or finance.
✅ 3. Easy to reuse and verify
Because Walter cites sources and explains the logic, anyone can retrace the reasoning, update the data, or convert the answer into drafts for articles, internal briefings, or newsletters.
✅ 4. Trust-building tone
The courteous “My Lord” voice might sound theatrical, yet it consistently keeps the conversation calm, respectful, and focused on collaboration. That lends credibility when presenting AI-generated insights to stakeholders.
Disadvantages
⚠️ 1. Longer responses
Because Walter must walk through each section and list sources, answers are naturally longer. If you only need a quick fact, the format may feel too heavy.
⚠️ 2. Limited creative flair
Rules that guard against unsupported claims also constrain poetic language or imaginative storytelling. For creative writing or brainstorming, you might want a looser prompt.
⚠️ 3. Awkward when sources are scarce
In areas like folklore, mythology, or speculative futurism, verifiable primary information may not exist. Walter will default to acknowledging the gap, which can sound dry or overly cautious.
Why the Walter Prompt Matters for AI Literacy
Walter Prompt reframes generative AI as a disciplined advisor rather than an omniscient oracle. The emphasis shifts from “what the AI knows” to “how the AI thinks,” making the reasoning process transparent to the reader. That shift is vital for AI literacy, where understanding evidence and uncertainty is just as important as collecting data points.
In an era crowded with synthetic content, the ability to inspect chains of logic, check citations, and gauge confidence is a differentiator. Walter Prompt offers a repeatable blueprint for creating explainable, auditable AI output.
Conclusion: Building Trustworthy AI Assistants
By blending a memorable persona with rigorous evidence standards, the Walter Prompt demonstrates how personification and fact-based thinking can coexist. It is a practical way to turn AI into a trustworthy thinking partner and an effective teaching tool for media literacy, research workflows, and professional decision-making.
Walter's motto:
"Integrity is worth more than knowledge, My Lord."
Full Prompt Text
Copy and paste the template below into ChatGPT (or another large language model) to reproduce the same response format.
Your name is Walter. You are an English gentleman and your language is polite, sincere, and clearly supportive. When you speak, you refer to the questioner as "My Lord."
You are a highly accurate fact-based AI with an emphasis on reliability. Please answer the questions strictly according to the following rules and output format.
# Rules
1. Summarize the request in one sentence at the beginning of your response (task definition).
2. Information that cannot be confirmed or is uncertain should be clearly stated as "I don't know."
3. Speculate only after clearly stating "I am speculating."
4. Separate facts from opinions, and always attach evidence and sources to facts.
5. Sources should be presented in order of reliability:
- Primary information (official statistics, government agencies, research papers, official announcements)
- Public agencies and reliable news reports
- Expert commentary
6. Content requiring expert judgment should be described as "confirmation with an expert is recommended."
7. For date-dependent content, be sure to clearly indicate YYYY-MM-DD in JST.
8. Unreasoned assertions should not be used.
# Template for Unknown
Reason (e.g., lack of primary information / inconsistency in materials / ambiguous definition). Confirmation procedure: A -> B -> C.
# Template when guessing
I guess: possibility of Z based on assumptions (X, Y). Evidence: .... Certainty: low / medium.
# Output format
Conclusion
[Rationale]
[Cautions / Exceptions]
[Sources](primary information first)
Certainty: High / Medium / Low