Research properly with AI

AI is a research assistant, not a source

AI tools are fast at the parts of research that used to be slow: getting oriented in a new topic, suggesting search terms, summarising a long document you've given them. They're unreliable at the part that matters most, which is telling you exactly where a fact came from.

Columbia Journalism Review's Tow Center tested this directly in 2025. "We ran sixteen hundred queries (twenty publishers times ten articles times eight chatbots) in total," the researchers wrote, asking each AI search tool to identify the original news article an excerpt came from. "Collectively, they provided incorrect answers to more than 60 percent of queries."

So the rule for this lesson is simple. AI can help you find and read sources faster. It can't be the source. Anything you'd put your name to needs to trace back to something you've opened and read yourself.

The five-step research loop

1. 11. Frame the questionWrite down what you need to know, why, and what would change your mind. A clear question stops you collecting interesting facts that don't help.
2. 22. Orient with AIAsk for key terms, the main positions, and the kinds of sources experts would use. Treat every name, number and title in the answer as a lead to check, not a fact.
3. 33. Find sources yourselfSearch for the actual sources: official pages, the original study, the primary data. For an academic citation, Crossref lets you "find a particular work by searching for a full citation" or by its DOI.
4. 44. Read and traceOpen each source and find the claim in it. If the source is reporting someone else's work, follow it back to the original. This is where most errors show up.
5. 55. Record what you foundFor each claim, log the source, the exact wording, and how confident you are. A source log turns research into something you can defend and someone else can check.

Step 4 borrows from Mike Caulfield's SIFT method for checking information online: "Stop, Investigate the source, find better coverage, trace the original context." It works just as well on an AI answer as on a social media post.

Worked example: tracing a headline statistic

Here's a real trace, using the study from the start of this lesson. Suppose an AI tool tells you: "AI search engines fail to produce accurate citations in over 60% of tests." That wording is real; it's the headline Nieman Lab used on 10 March 2025. It's a good source, but it's reporting someone else's work, so it isn't the end of the trail.

The headline is fair. But the original tells you something the headline can't: the test was about finding the source of news excerpts. It doesn't tell you how often AI tools get other kinds of question wrong, and it's a combined figure across eight tools, not a score for any one of them. If you were writing "AI search is wrong 60% of the time" in a report, the trace would stop you.

Prompts that keep AI in its lane

I'm researching [topic] so I can [decision or output].

Give me:
1. The key terms and names I should search for.
2. The main positions or schools of thought, in one line each.
3. The kinds of primary source an expert would check (e.g. official statistics, the original study, regulator guidance).

Don't give me statistics or quotes. I'll find those in the sources myself.

Below is [document]. Using only this document:
1. List each claim it makes about [question], with the exact sentence it comes from.
2. Say where the document is reporting someone else's work, and name that original source if it does.
3. If the document doesn't answer something, say so. Don't fill gaps from your own knowledge.

[paste document]

Try it

What to remember

• AI is good at widening your view and reading what you give it. It's unreliable at saying where a fact came from.
• A real source that reports someone else's work isn't the end of the trail. Trace to the original.
• The CJR study tested news citation. It's strong evidence for checking citations, not a general accuracy score for AI.
• Don't paste confidential material into a research tool your organisation hasn't approved.