Week 4 — Critical Thinking & Fact-Checking
Learning objectives
- Apply the SIFT method to any piece of AI-generated or AI-amplified content.
- Recognise AI “hallucinations” — fabricated facts, fake citations, invented quotes.
- Build a personal fact-checking workflow that takes under two minutes.
Core concepts
AI tools confidently produce false information — fake legal cases, invented historical quotes, made-up scientific citations. Confidence is not a signal of accuracy. The most durable defence isn’t a specific tool; it’s a habit. Digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield’s SIFT method gives a four-step routine: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims back to the original context.
Discussion prompts
- Tell each other about a time you believed something online that turned out to be wrong. What made it believable? What would have caught it?
- Why might an AI invent a fact and present it confidently? (Hint: re-read Week 1.)
- If a TikTok, an AI summary, and a published news article all say the same thing, are they three sources — or one? How would you check?
- What’s the difference between “I don’t know” and “I looked it up and it’s not true”? Which one do AI tools tend to skip?
At-home activity: “Catch the AI lying”
Together, design five questions where the correct answer is something each of you knows well — a family member’s job, the plot of a favourite book, a local sports result, a niche hobby fact, a historical event from your country. Ask an AI chatbot each question and rate its answer: - Correct - Partially correct (with mistakes) - Confidently wrong - Refused / hedged
For any “confidently wrong” answer, run it through the SIFT steps as a pair. Discuss: would you have caught this if you didn’t already know the answer?
Parent resource list
- University of Chicago Library — The SIFT Method — clean, step-by-step explainer of Caulfield’s method.
- News Literacy Project — Checkology platform — free interactive lessons including modules on AI and misinformation.
- Mike Caulfield’s blog — Hapgood — the originator of SIFT writes accessibly about online verification.
- Snopes and Full Fact — bookmark these as a family for spot-checks.
Reflection
“This week I caught AI being wrong about ___. I caught it because ___.”