The lessons › Lesson 3 of 6
How do I check an answer?
A short routine for checking anything that matters.
First decide how much it matters. A verse for a birthday card needs no checking. A dose, a deadline, a legal point, a quotation or anything you will repeat as fact does.
For anything that matters, ask where it comes from, then open the source yourself and find the claim in it. If there is no source, or the source does not say it, treat the claim as unconfirmed.
Then check one specific claim against a reference you choose yourself: an official website, a standard book, a professional. Be most careful with exact-sounding details: figures, dates, names, quotations and references.
An example
An assistant tells you a council deadline is 31 March and names the council's website as its source. You open the council's page. The deadline there is 31 January. The source was real; the date did not come from it.
Try this
Ask a question on a topic you care about, with sources. Open every source. For each claim, note whether it is found as stated, found but different, or not found.
Check yourself
Which details most often need checking?
Exact figures, dates, names, quotations and references.
The assistant names a source. Is that enough?
No. Open it and find the claim. A source can be real and still not say what was claimed, or it may not exist.
Is asking "are you sure?" a check?
No. It may change the answer, but only a source you have read, or a reference you trust, is a check.
What AI cannot do here
It cannot vouch for itself. Checking means going outside the conversation.
Sources
Last reviewed 1 October 2026. Glossary · Report a mistake