How to Fact-Check AI-Generated Content
If you work with generative AI, learning how to fact-check AI-generated content is essential. AI tools have significantly changed content creation: They can help writers generate ideas, overcome writer’s block, automate tedious tasks, and work more efficiently. But, like any tool, they only work effectively with the input of a trained professional. This is especially true when it comes to fact-checking.
This post will explain what fact-checking is and why it is so important, then we will outline some simple steps to help you fact-check AI-generated content.
What Does Fact-Checking Involve?
The process of fact-checking involves reviewing content to make sure it is accurate, logical, and truthful. Standard steps involved in fact-checking include:
- Critically examining all facts, statements, and claims
- Analyzing all source materials used
- Making sure conclusions are properly communicated
Fact-checking is an essential step because it raises the overall quality and trustworthiness of the content. Making sure there are no errors or inaccuracies ensures no damage is done to the reputation of the writer or the business that publishes the content.
Book publishing, journalism, news reporting, financial guides, and many other content types and industries rely on the fact-checking process to guarantee the quality of the content they produce. Blog articles, documentaries, TV scripts, and social media content are just a few of the things that require fact-checking.
What Is Verification?
While fact-checking and verification are similar and have the same ultimate aim, they are not exactly the same thing.
Verification is a process that typically happens after content is published. It focuses less on the analysis of facts or data and more on confirming that something is what it claims to be. For example, whether a video clip actually shows the time and place it claims to.
Why Is Fact-Checking AI Content Important?
Using AI tools to generate content is quick and relatively simple, and it is becoming increasingly popular. Anyone can now use platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, or Google’s Gemini to generate written or visual content.
As we mentioned, there are many advantages of using AI to generate content. However, there are also many potential legal and ethical issues connected to AI. If you work with content in any capacity, such as if you’re a writer or an editor, it’s important to be aware of these issues and how to mitigate them.
The central rule is this: You should never publish AI-generated content without checking it first – or having a trained proofreader or editor do it for you.
Here are some common issues that come up when generating content with AI:
- Misinformation: AI responses can be inaccurate for multiple reasons. The tool may draw on incorrect information, invent facts to meet the request, or misunderstand a poorly written prompt. Understanding how to craft effective prompts helps reduce this risk, but it is no guarantee of accuracy.
- Bias: AI tools construct their answers from varied training material and often live online content. If that material contains biased information, or if the prompt itself leans a particular way, the AI output can reflect that bias. Bias can include old-fashioned or outdated viewpoints or information as well as prejudiced or discriminatory attitudes.
- Offensive content: Because everything produced by AI relies on preexisting information in its training or on the internet, the content that is produced could draw on ideologies, historical references, or dialogue that can be considered hurtful or discriminatory to certain people.
- Hallucinations: Generative AI tools can produce what are known as hallucinations. This content can sound confident and persuasive but be completely wrong.
This is why, to avoid any of the potential issues mentioned above, it is vital to have all AI-generated content checked by a professional – or learn how to fact-check yourself!
How to Fact-Check AI Output
The approach to fact-checking AI-generated content is very similar to how you would fact-check something written by a human.
1. Identify What Needs to Be Checked
Review the content in detail and identify any statements or claims that need to be checked. There could be mistakes anywhere – such as in names or dates – so don’t overlook the finer details too. It’s wise to check:
- People’s names and official titles
- Company and brand names
- Place names and locations
- Numbers (e.g., dates, measurements, statistics, prices, and ages)
- Timeframes and sequences of events
- Quotations (i.e., who they are attributed to and whether they are written exactly as spoken)
- Any potentially offensive or possibly biased statements, or references.
Always make detailed, well-organized notes that you can reference later. During this first step, it is also helpful to flag anything that may not be incorrect but could be considered hurtful or unfit for publication. This helps you evaluate whether any content is biased or problematic.
2. Categorize the Facts
This step is optional, but it can be helpful to organize all the information into various categories, such as:
- Dates
- Places
- Names
- Statements
- Historical claims
- Images or infographics
This can help streamline your fact-checking process, as you can deal with each type of fact one at a time.
3. Analyze Source Material
This can often be the hardest step. AI tools often cite secondary source material in the output. Analyzing this kind of information can be difficult if you don’t know the source and how reliable it is.
Just like when working with a human writer, you can ask the AI tool what it sources it used when generating the content. However, you have no way of being sure that the sources are real, reliable, or correctly quoted. You have to dig deeper and evaluate if the source is reputable as well as whether the information is accurately reflected in the content.
Since it can be hard to determine if the source material is primary or secondary, or reliable at all, fact-checking AI-generated content may require finding new source material that can validate – or disprove – the claims generated by AI.
This is a good time to deal with any biased or offensive content you may have noticed during your initial reviews. Choosing to cut or change any inappropriate material may also require finding new source material. Ideally, any claims should be cross-referenced against several credible sources. This includes content from:
- Research studies
- Subject matter experts
- Reputable databases
- Well-known, authoritative websites
4. Draw Logical Conclusions
The final step is to record your conclusions and recommendations and communicate them to your client. You can follow these steps to make this process as simple as possible:
- Record everything you have discovered, and make sure it is collated in an easy-to-understand format.
- Outline appropriate recommendations, corrections, or areas for improvement.
- Share your findings with the content creator or editor.
Becoming a Fact-Checker
If you are interested in learning more about fact-checking AI-generated content as an editor, a writer, or a content director, check out our How To Fact-Check course. It will teach you how to identify reliable sources, analyze complex data sets, and effectively apply fact-checking tools and processes to any kind of writing, plus you’ll learn how to verify images and videos.
Try two free lessons from the full course today, and see what you could learn.
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