Verify the article’s factual claims one by one against original evidence and independent reporting. An AI-written story can mix accurate details with errors, and fluent writing—or an AI detector score—cannot establish whether its claims are true.
Start with the claims, not the writing style
Separate statements that can be checked from opinion or interpretation. Prioritize assertions central to the headline and conclusion: who did what, when and where; direct quotations; statistics; descriptions of events; and claims that one event caused another. A single article-level verdict can hide important differences between claims.
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The OSCE advises checking AI-generated text as you would other text, including searching for original statements, speech transcripts and official releases. OSCE guidance on fact-checking and verification of AI content
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Trace each important claim to its strongest evidence
- Find the source closest to the event. Search for the original document, full transcript, public record, research paper, court or agency release, or firsthand statement. A later article may be useful, but it is not a substitute for the underlying evidence when that evidence is available.
- Read the relevant material in context. Check whether it supports the exact wording in the article. Verify names, dates, places, units and whether a statement is quoted directly or paraphrased. For a statistic, note the original publisher and year rather than attributing a repeated number to a source that did not publish it.
- Seek independent corroboration. Look for reporting or documentation based on separate evidence. Several outlets repeating the same original report do not necessarily provide several independent confirmations.
- Record conflicts and gaps. If credible sources disagree, or you cannot find evidence adequate to support a claim, mark it unresolved. Do not use an AI system’s confident answer to fill the gap.
Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security likewise recommends checking sources, looking for evidence from trusted official organizations, consulting fact-checking sites and reverse-searching images. Indiana DHS misinformation guidance
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Check images, video and audio separately
A media file can be authentic but presented with a false caption, date or location. Reverse image search may reveal earlier appearances or a different context; inspect the original file and its metadata when available. Visual inconsistencies can suggest questions to investigate, but they are not a verdict on their own. Google’s guidance covers reverse search, metadata, visual inspection and Content Credentials. Google guidance on verifying AI-generated images, videos and audio
Metadata may be missing, altered or unavailable in a screenshot or downloaded copy. A search result showing an earlier appearance helps establish media history, not necessarily what the image depicts or whether the article’s accompanying claim is true.
Understand provenance signals and detector limits
Content Credentials use a tamper-evident structure to carry information about digital media origin and edits. The C2PA standard describes provenance as complementary to fact-checking and digital forensics; adding credentials is optional. Their absence does not prove an asset is fake, and their presence does not prove the claims attached to it are true. C2PA Content Credentials explainer
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11OpenAI’s Verify page checks supported image and audio files for supported signals associated with OpenAI tools, including C2PA and SynthID. OpenAI says content made with another company’s model may not be detected. The tool is not a universal checker for AI-written articles. OpenAI Verify overview
OpenAI also cautions that a detected provenance signal does not establish accuracy, lack of editing, legal ownership or correct context. OpenAI Help Center: provenance signals A text-detector result is not a fact-check: the reviewed official guidance does not establish a reliable detector that can determine the truth or authorship of an entire news article. Treat any detector score as separate from the evidence for the article’s claims.
Compare sources when evidence conflicts
- Proximity: Is the source an original record or a later account?
- Independence: Do corroborating sources rely on separate evidence, or repeat the same report?
- Claim match: Does the evidence support the precise statement, date, number and context?
- Transparency: Can readers inspect the source and understand how the conclusion follows?
- Timeliness: Could the facts have changed since the source was published?
- Scope: Does a tool assess file history or a narrow provenance signal, or does the evidence actually address the news claim?
Write a finding for each claim
Keep a short record for every central assertion: the source checked, what it directly supports, any credible contradiction and your conclusion. Useful labels are:
- Supported: The evidence directly backs the claim in the stated context.
- Contradicted: Reliable evidence conflicts with the claim.
- Partly supported: Some elements are substantiated, but the wording overstates, omits or changes important context.
- Not established: You could not find adequate evidence to confirm or refute it.
Base your conclusion about the article on the central claims and the strength of their evidence. State what is confirmed, what is only partly corroborated and what remains unresolved; do not turn a lack of evidence into proof that a claim is false.
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