AI Citations Are Leads, Not Proof

Never approve an AI claim merely because a link appears beside it. Open the source and verify that it exists, supports the sentence, preserves context and is current enough.

Four checks

1. Existence: title, publisher and URL are real.
2. Entailment: the source supports the exact sentence.
3. Context: qualifiers and limitations remain.
4. Freshness: the date fits the claim.

Models can invent references, merge documents or attach a valid source to an unsupported conclusion. Search grounding reduces some errors but does not transfer responsibility.

Prefer primary evidence

Use release notes for product changes, standards bodies for protocols, courts for opinions and studies for measured results. Add independent context when incentives or consequences matter.

• Match quotes exactly.
• Record dates.
• Never cite a search snippet.
• Label inference.
• Drop unsupported claims.

For numbers

Find the table, denominator, unit and period. Recalculate simple arithmetic and separate estimates from counts.

Citations make verification possible; they do not perform it.

Build a claim map

Break the draft into statements that could be wrong. Give each statement one or more source locations. A source supporting the general topic does not support every sentence in the paragraph. When several claims depend on one source, verify each independently.

Recognize circular sourcing

Multiple pages may repeat the same press release or unsourced statistic. Trace the statement to the earliest primary record. Ten copies of one unsupported claim are not ten confirmations. For contentious conclusions, add a source with independent reporting or methods.

Example: a product limit

If an answer says a plan permits a particular number of uploads, check the current official limits page, the plan and the date. Record whether the number is a hard limit, a rolling rate or subject to capacity. Those qualifiers determine whether the guidance works.

Preserve what you checked

Save the title, publisher, URL, date and the proposition supported. If a page changes frequently, capture a permitted snapshot or quotation within copyright limits. That record lets an editor distinguish a later source change from an original verification failure.

Match evidence strength to consequence

A low-stakes browser tip may need official documentation and a quick reproduction. A medical, financial, legal or security claim requires stronger expertise, current jurisdiction and explicit limitations. Do not let the convenience of an available citation lower the evidence standard that the decision would normally require.

When the source is a PDF, verify the printed page number and the file page index because they can differ. Cite the label a reader can actually find and include the section heading when pagination is unstable.