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Prove It · Module 3: Real sources

Ask for sources the right way

Concept · 7 minLast checked against the live product: 13 September 2026

Asking "give me sources" produces sources whether or not real ones exist. The model will generate references in the correct format because that is what you asked for. The better approach is to ask in ways that make fabrication harder.

Use a tool with live search, and ask it to search. A model with web access can retrieve real documents and cite them; a model without it can only remember, and remembering is where invention happens. Ask for links, not citations. A URL can be clicked. Ask it to quote directly and say where the quotation appears. And ask it to tell you when it is not sure a source exists: models will often flag their own uncertainty if invited to.

Best of all, reverse the direction. Give it the source and ask it to work from that. Paste the document, the page, the data. Then the model is summarising something real, which it is good at, rather than recalling something it may have invented.

In practice. A bid writer needed evidence for a claim about sector productivity. Asked for sources, the tool gave four with authors and years. Asked instead to search and provide links with quotations, it gave two, both real, and said it could not find support for the strongest version of the claim. The bid was rewritten to what could be evidenced.

I need real, checkable sources for this claim: [ claim ]. Search for them if you can. Give me only sources you can link to, with the URL, the author or organisation, the date, and a direct quotation of the sentence that supports the claim, with where it appears. If you cannot find a source you are confident exists, say so plainly rather than giving me a plausible-looking reference. Tell me which of these you are least sure about.

At your desk. Pick a claim you need to support. Ask for sources the naive way in one chat. Ask the right way, with search and links, in another. Compare what comes back and how many of each you can verify.

Write it down.

  • Naive request: sources given
  • real:
  • Better request: sources given
  • real:
  • The one that was not real: