How to check an AI answer before you use it
AI chatbots sometimes produce statements that sound right but are false. The industry calls this "hallucination". You don't need to distrust everything, but you do need a habit of checking.
The five-minute check
- Names, dates and numbers: verify any you plan to rely on with an official source.
- Links and references: open them. Invented sources are common.
- Laws, health and money: treat the answer as a starting point and confirm with a qualified person or an official site.
- Ask it to show its work: "Which parts of this are you least sure about?" often surfaces weak spots.
- Read it aloud: wrong tone and odd claims are easier to hear than to see.
When checking matters less
Brainstorms, first drafts and rewording your own text are low risk, because you are the source of the facts.