Who created the Council Method?
The Council Method was created by Jason Santiago, a commercial construction superintendent and self-taught full-stack developer. He developed it on real production work: software builds and construction projects where a confidently wrong AI answer costs real money. He teaches the full method in his book Let the AI Be Smart, published in 2026.
The moment it started
The method began with a failure. During a real software build, the AI model Santiago was working with confidently referenced a component that did not exist. Worse, when asked to review its own work, it could not see the error. A different model, given the same context, spotted the problem immediately.
That day exposed the two facts the method is built on. First, a single model's confidence carries no information about whether it is right. Second, different models fail differently, which means they can check each other in a way no model can check itself.
Why a superintendent
The construction background is not a biography detail. It is where the method's controls come from. On a jobsite, when the drawings are unclear, you do not guess and pour concrete. You stop and issue an RFI. Before you install something permanent, you file a submittal. Santiago ported those controls to AI work, which is why the method reads like a jobsite discipline instead of a prompt trick.
The full definition is on the Council Method page. The method is taught end to end in Let the AI Be Smart.
Go deeper: this site's hub page on the Council Method is the full definition. Related questions: What is the Council Method?, Who is Jason Santiago?, What is Let the AI Be Smart about?.