Home / Become an AI Director

Catch facts the AI made up

To catch a made-up fact, ask the chat to mark what came from you, what it is unsure about, and what you must check. Then you check the names, dates, and numbers before you use them.

Next step: copy the first prompt that matches your task. Fill in the brackets. Send only that.

A prompt is the message you paste. An approval gate is a stop you control. A checkpoint is a pause after one phase. School pages teach. They do not do the homework. Follow your teacher's rules.

How to do it

  1. 1 Tell it what counts as a source. Your paste, a file you uploaded, or a page you will open. Anything else is not a fact yet.
  2. 2 Ask for three labels. From me. Unsure. Check this. A label is a mark on each claim, not a vibe.
  3. 3 Check one claim yourself. Open the report, the airline, the map, the book, or your own notes. If it is not there, cut it.
  4. 4 Send the cuts back. Say which lines you deleted and tell it not to put them back in the next phase.

Work

A summary that cannot invent numbers

You need a summary of a report you pasted. Every figure has to be in that paste.

Summarize only what is in the text below. Do not add industry numbers, quotes, or causes.

Text:
[paste]

For each bullet, start with FROM THE TEXT or NOT IN THE TEXT. If you are unsure, write UNSURE and say what I should open. Do not use a number that is not in the paste.

School

A reading check, not a fake citation

You need to understand a page you have. The chat must not invent a quote or a page number.

This is for learning. Do not write anything I will turn in. Follow my teacher's rules.

Here is the passage I read:
[paste the passage]

Explain the idea in simple words. Then list any quote you used, copied from the passage. If you cannot copy it from the passage, do not quote it. Do not invent a page number, a study, or an author. End with 2 questions I should be able to answer from this passage only.

Life

Trip prices you still have to see

A chat can suggest a shape for the day. It cannot know today's fare.

Plan the order of the day in [city] on [date]. Do not invent prices, hours, or ticket rules.

Must do: [list]. Budget I will check myself: [amount].

Mark every price, hour, or 'open on Sunday' claim as CHECK THIS. Tell me the kind of page I should open, such as the airline or the museum. If you do not know, write I DO NOT KNOW. Do not guess.

Common mistakes

  • Trusting a sentence because it sounds sure.
  • Asking for sources and then not opening one.
  • Letting it cite a study, a law, or a quote you have not seen.
  • Pasting the made-up line into the next phase, where it becomes 'your' fact.

More in this section: Check each phase before the next one · Stop the yes-man reply

Practice on a real task: Check flight and road-trip prices · Understand a hard reading

Last updated · All director guides

Where this comes from

  • Anthropic, “Trustworthy agents in practice” (April 9, 2026). Anthropic says an agent plans, acts, looks at the result, and repeats until the job is done or it needs a person. In Claude Code, Plan Mode shows the plan first. You can edit it and approve it before any work starts, and you can still step in later.
  • Anthropic, “Building effective agents” (December 19, 2024). Anthropic says an agent can pause for a person at a checkpoint. One pattern they describe is to write an outline, check that the outline is good, and only then write the piece.
  • OpenAI Help, “ChatGPT Work and Codex”. OpenAI describes Work as an agent for longer, multi-step jobs. The help page says you can review progress, change direction, and approve important actions. If your account does not show Work, use the same stops in a normal chat.

Common questions

Why does it invent facts?

It is trying to finish the pattern of an answer. A gap in what you gave it does not always make it stop. You have to tell it to mark the gap.

What should I check every time?

Names, dates, prices, quotes, citations, hours, and any number you might repeat to someone else.

Is a link the same as a check?

No. Open it. See the words yourself. A link you did not open is not a check.

Can I ask it for citations for a paper?

You can ask what to look up. You cannot paste a citation you have not read. Follow your teacher's rules.