OA9 OppAlerts from Ben Wills
How AI Search Works: From Prompt to Response A guide for SEOs, AI search marketers, and marketing teams
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Work in progress Transcript and examples under review.

The recorded ChatGPT responses are preserved. The context boxes and summaries explain how to read them.

Some code blocks remain unclassified. The labels describe the evidence shown in this session; they do not verify private system internals.

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Evidence and sourcing

Reading the Code Block Labels

Identify reported tool values, illustrative examples, documented schemas, and unclassified blocks.

The code blocks include reported tool data, illustrative values, and proposed structures. Read the label with each block before using it as evidence.

Colors group the blocks by their stated source. Some blocks remain unclassified.

green
Reported tool values. The session presents these values as tool arguments or results. Some JSON was created afterward from those values. The individual label identifies that distinction.
blue
Invented. ChatGPT made the values up. The shape may be about right. The numbers and strings are not from anywhere.
amber
Documented. Copied from OpenAI's published documentation. You can go and check this yourself, which makes it the most verifiable material here.
purple
Conceptual. Proposed, inferred, or a shape shown only to say it never arrives. Also the drawn diagrams, which are ChatGPT's picture of its own process rather than real functions.
unmarked
Not yet sorted. The block has not been classified. Do not infer its source from its formatting.
no color
Not a representation. Code that is not a tool payload at all, such as the reflection prompt itself.

The recording and the underlying tool data

Two separate checks matter. A comparison with the original conversation can establish that the response was copied without edits. Establishing that a value came from an actual tool requires the corresponding tool record or other source evidence.

The existing labels are retained with the recording. Editorial notes on each page identify unresolved classifications and labels that need review because the blocks contain apparent placeholders. “Unclassified” means the source of the example has not been established, not that the response text is missing.

The labels underneath

Each block also has a text label. A green block can contain reported request arguments, transcribed results, or a later conversion using reported values.

LabelWhat it means
sent exactly as shownThe arguments that went to the tool
returned exactly as shownThe text that came back from the tool
ChatGPT JSON built from real valuesIts own JSON, holding values a call returned
ChatGPT JSON, invented valuesIts own JSON, holding made-up values
field names only, values are typesA list of which fields exist, with type words where values would sit
OpenAI documentationFrom the published API docs
not exposed or proposedA shape shown to say it never arrives, or one suggested for a system that does not exist
conceptual, drawn by ChatGPTA diagram of the process, not real functions
unclassified, needs reviewNot sorted yet

How the session’s examples change

The earlier turns include illustrative JSON. Later turns ask ChatGPT to run tools and distinguish the results from its own formatting.

The early JSON examples are not documented private schemas. ChatGPT describes them as normalized examples and acknowledges invented values.

Then we ask whether any of it is real. ChatGPT admits the sample values were not captured from actual calls.

The later responses report tool calls with prices, scores, articles, and weather information. The notes below explain replacements described in those responses.

Use each block’s label rather than its position in the conversation to identify its stated source.

Replacements and omissions

The recorded responses describe replacing session reference IDs with placeholders like <REF_ID>, and used <RENDERED IMAGE> where an image sat, because an image cannot be printed as text. Where a replacement was made, the displayed block differs from the complete tool output, even if its label says “exact.”

A shortened passage or removed repetition is an omission. An ellipsis such as ... can indicate omitted text. The original tool record is needed to establish what, if anything, was removed.

One more case shows up in the later turns. ChatGPT sometimes replaced the actual content with generic placeholders such as <PAGE HEADING> or <AUTHOR>, because the question at that point was about format rather than content. Those blocks show the format ChatGPT described, with values replaced. They do not independently verify the original tool format.

What an absent field establishes

Absence of evidence

When ChatGPT reports that a field is not exposed, the statement concerns the interface described in this session. It does not establish what the underlying service stores.

ChatGPT flags this itself: "Those null values mean 'not exposed,' not that the internal system necessarily lacks them."

An ordered result list does not disclose the provider’s scoring formula. Independent verification requires documentation or logs beyond the model’s description.