Check what an assistant told you, in under a minute
Tell which answers from an assistant need checking and which do not, and check those in well under a minute — so you can use one without either believing it blindly or distrusting all of it.
You already know an assistant builds its answer by choosing likely-sounding words, and that whether it looked anything up depends on the assistant and the question. The unhelpful conclusion is to distrust all of it. The useful conclusion is that it is wrong in a particular way, and that way is predictable enough to work with.
It is at its best where being roughly right is enough and you would notice if it were not — rewording a letter, explaining a term, suggesting what to ask a doctor. It is at its worst on anything specific and checkable: numbers, dates, addresses, telephone numbers, prices, opening hours, names of people, whether a rule applies to you.
Notice that this has nothing to do with how sure it sounded. It has no way to sound unsure about a made-up telephone number, because to the machine it is made of the same material as a real one.
Key points
- It is wrong in a particular way: specific, checkable facts are where it invents
- Ask what being wrong would cost — a clumsy sentence, or a wrong dose
- How sure it sounds carries no information at all
- Check against a second source, never by asking it again
- Rewording, explaining and suggesting need no checking, because you are the judge
What to remember
- Check the specific and the costly — numbers, dates, hours, doses. Everything shaped like an opinion or a rewording is yours to judge as you read it.
- Check against a second source, never against the same one. Asking it again is asking the same machine the same way.
- Asking twice is not checking twice. Two answers from the same machine are one source wearing two hats.
Try this
Ask an assistant for the telephone number and opening hours of somewhere you already know well — your own pharmacy or library. You know the right answer, so you will see for yourself how confidently it handles the parts it does not know, and that is worth more than being told about it.
Practice: Check what an assistant told you, in under a minute. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.