diff --git a/aider/io.py b/aider/io.py
index ce82c5bd2..0c9b87049 100644
--- a/aider/io.py
+++ b/aider/io.py
@@ -368,8 +368,7 @@ class InputOutput:
             return self.read_image(filename)
 
         try:
-            # ignore decoding errors. ai!
-            with open(str(filename), "r", encoding=self.encoding) as f:
+            with open(str(filename), "r", encoding=self.encoding, errors='ignore') as f:
                 return f.read()
         except FileNotFoundError:
             if not silent: