Verifying AI Sources: The 60-Second Check

Every major AI model still invents citations that look completely real — fake DOIs, made-up authors, plausible journal names. Lawyers have been disbarred over this. Students get zeros. The fix is a 60-second habit: every citation gets clicked, or it doesn't go in your work.

Some examples

• Search the exact paper title in quotes — if Google Scholar shows nothing, it's likely fake.
• DOIs are easy to verify: doi.org/[the doi] should resolve to a real paper.
• Author names are hallucinated more often than titles — verify both.
• If AI gives a quote, find the original source and check the wording.

Try it!

Ask AI for five sources on any topic. Try to verify each. Note how many were real.

Practice this safely

Try this with a school, hobby, or family example where the stakes are low. Use the AI output as a draft you can question, not as the final answer.

1. 1Ask AI to explain hallucination in plain language, then underline anything that sounds uncertain or too broad.
2. 2Give it one detail from "Verifying AI Sources: The 60-Second Check" and ask for two possible next steps plus one reason each step might be wrong.
3. 3Check citation against a trusted source, teacher, adult, expert, or original document before you use it.