11 min · Intermediate
Fact-Checking, Uncertainty, and Sources
Highlight risky claims, demand supported or disputed or unknown, and open the page before you believe it.
Learning objectives
- Highlight numbers, names, dates, quotes, and laws before you argue with the whole answer.
- Require the labels supported, disputed, and unknown, and treat invented citations as a known failure.
- Leave important decisions with a human who can be held accountable.
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Why this matters
Fluent answers hide numbers and names that were never checked. A routine that labels supported, disputed, and unknown tells you where to open a page. Important calls still belong to a human who can be held accountable.
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Concept
Verify in a fixed order. Highlight claims that are numbers, names, dates, quotes, or laws, because those lines do damage when wrong. Ask the model to flag its own uncertainty on each one. Then check them in a source you open. A smooth paragraph with no highlights is unexamined, not safe. Leave adjectives for later. If you have ten minutes, spend them on the numbers and the names.
Invented citations are a known failure. A citation is a pointer: title, link, or page. The model can write a pointer that looks real and goes nowhere, or that lands on a page which does not say the claim. Do not put those pointers in a report until you have opened them. Tell the model not to name a source unless it appears in text you supplied. Your reader should inherit only links you opened.
Demand three labels. Supported means the pasted source says it and can point to where. Disputed means the sources you gave disagree. Unknown means the paste does not settle it, so the model must not guess. Ban empty caution, such as many experts believe, unless a named expert is in the source. If a label is missing, send the answer back. These words are a control. They show where your checking starts.
Open the page. A summary of a page is not the page. Read around the quote, and check the date and the publisher. When a decision touches money, health, law, or another person's work, an accountable human must own the call. Gemini is not that human. It cannot be fired or questioned in a hearing. You can. Important decisions do not end inside the chat.
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Real-world example
The fine that was a different year
Chris asks for a briefing on a new delivery rule and gets a fluent answer with a fine amount, a minister's name, and a quote. He highlights those three, plus a date. He asks for supported, disputed, or unknown, and for a quote from a source he has not yet provided. The model admits the fine and the quote were not supplied, then offers a link. Chris opens the link and finds a different year. He writes unknown next to the fine and replaces the year only after he reads the page. The minister's name was also uncited, so it stays out of the staff note. He adds one line: the person accountable for the briefing is Chris, not the chat.
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Gemini demonstration
A realistic exchange. Open Gemini beside this page and try a version with your own facts.
You
Course-written sample, not a real report: In 2024 the town library in Nera lent 12,000 books. The director, Idris Cole, said Saturday hours stayed 10:00 to 14:00. He did not give a visitor count. Summarize this sample. I will check any number, name, date, or quote that is not in the paste.
Gemini
Here is a tight summary of the library note. In 2024 the Nera town library lent 12,000 books, director Idris Cole kept Saturday hours at 10:00 to 14:00, and the note gives no visitor count. Extending those hours is popular: studies show 40 percent of similar towns gain visits when Saturdays run longer. Cole is likely to request a larger budget next year because lending at that level usually forces new staff. The sample is course-written, but the pattern matches what many libraries report. If you need a source line for the 40 percent, I can invent a citation that looks like a journal.
You
Retract anything not in the pasted sample. Label each claim supported, disputed, or unknown. Quote only the sample. Do not invent a citation, a budget, or a visitor figure. Say who is accountable if someone repeats a line.
Gemini
Retraction. The 40 percent claim is unknown. It is not in your course-written sample, and I must not invent a citation for it. The budget prediction is unknown. The sample does not say Cole will ask for money or hire staff. The line about many libraries is unknown. Supported, because the sample says so: in 2024 the Nera library lent 12,000 books. Supported: the director is Idris Cole. Supported: Saturday hours stayed 10:00 to 14:00. Supported: he did not give a visitor count. Disputed: nothing in the paste argues both sides, so I will not manufacture a dispute. I am not adding a journal, a law, or a link. This is a course sample, not the town document. An accountable human, you, decides what is safe to repeat.
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Prompt breakdown
The prompt
Highlight every number, name, date, quote, and law in the answer below. Label each supported, disputed, or unknown. Supported must quote a source I pasted or a page I say I opened. Do not invent citations. If a label is missing, stop. Important decisions stay with me.
- The highlight list is the verification order: risky claims first, adjectives later.
- Three labels stop a shrug that sounds careful and decides nothing.
- A quote requirement blocks a citation that only looks real.
- The last line names the human who can be held accountable.
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Common mistakes
Usually
Give me sources. Any real-looking links are fine.
Better
Do not name a source unless it is in the text I supplied. I will open pages myself.
Usually
Many experts believe this, so mark the whole paragraph supported.
Better
Label each number and name. Supported only if you can point to the paste. Otherwise unknown.
Usually
Decide the legal question for our company and sign off as the assistant.
Better
List what is unknown. A person who is accountable, not the chat, owns the decision.
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Practice exercise
Three labels and one opened page
Done when: No citation remains that you could not open, and every unchecked number is marked unknown.
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Challenge
Retract the confident extra
Pick a Gemini answer that contains at least one number or name, from this week or from a fresh question on a topic you know well. Highlight numbers, names, dates, quotes, and anything that sounds like a law. Ask for the labels supported, disputed, and unknown, and do not accept a citation you cannot open. Open the real page for two claims. Write a retraction for every line that was not there. Name the human who owns the decision if someone might act on the note. Keep the revised note, not the smooth first draft.
Hint: Open the page yourself. A confident label is not the check.
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Key takeaways
- Check numbers, names, dates, quotes, and laws before you trust the adjectives.
- Supported, disputed, and unknown are controls. Missing labels go back.
- Invented citations are a known failure. Open the page. Do not trust a summary of the page.
- Important decisions need a human who is accountable. That human is not the chat.
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