Lesson 75 · 2 min
Ask AI to check its own work
A second pass where AI reviews its own answer against clear criteria catches many mistakes, though never all of them.
The first answer is a draft. You can ask for a review: "Read your answer again. Check every number against the data I gave you. List anything you are unsure of."
Give the check something concrete to look for. "Is this good?" invites a yes. "Does every claim come from the pasted report? Mark any that do not" gives the model a real job.
A fresh chat can help too. Paste the answer into a new conversation and ask it to find problems, as if a colleague wrote it. A model is often more critical of text it does not think of as its own.
Self-checking lowers errors but does not remove them. The same model can repeat the same mistake with confidence. For anything that matters, you still check the key facts yourself.
Do it now
Run a review pass
- 1. Take an AI answer you got recently that had numbers or facts in it.
- 2. Paste it into a new chat with the prompt below.
- 3. Check the flagged items yourself.
Here is a draft written by an assistant: [PASTE]. Review it like a strict editor. 1. List any claim that might be wrong or needs a source. 2. List any number that does not add up. 3. Say what is missing for [READER]. Do not rewrite it yet.
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Build your own prompt libraryWords from this lesson
- Hallucination
- When an AI states something false with confidence, such as a made-up fact, quote or source.
- Sycophancy
- An AI's tendency to agree with you or flatter your ideas instead of telling you where you are wrong.