Artificial intelligence
🔎 Using AI for Research and Writing
How AI research and writing tools work, which kind fits which job, where they invent citations, quotes and numbers, and how to check what they hand you before you rely on it.
- 1Choosing the Right AI Tool for the JobThe main kinds of AI research tools, what each one is good and bad at, and which kind fits which job.14 min
- 2How Prompts Shape AI Answers: Role, Task, Context, Constraints, Format, ExamplesWhat the six parts of a prompt do to an AI answer, why vague prompts get guessed answers, and how follow-up corrections change the result.15 min
- 3How AI Handles Budgets, Audits, Transcripts and BillsWhere AI helps and where it slips when finding primary sources, reading long public documents, pulling tables, summarizing meetings and comparing bill versions, with a worked county budget example.18 min
- 4Verifying Everything AI Tells YouHow AI tools produce hallucinated citations, fabricated quotes and wrong numbers, the repeatable check that catches them, and what Source Checker and Article Values Graph add as a second pass.17 min
- 5Analyzing Data with AI, and Checking the Math YourselfHow AI tools that run code on spreadsheets clean data, compute changes and draft charts, where they go wrong, and how to check every result with your own arithmetic and a sanity test.16 min
- 6What AI Writing Assistants Do to Your TextWhat happens when AI outlines, tightens, titles and line-edits text, where it quietly adds claims, and how to check an AI-edited document before anyone relies on it.15 min
- 7Recognizing AI Tells in WritingThe words, structures and rhythms that make writing read as machine-made, why they cost a writer trust, and what specific, human writing has that generated text lacks.16 min
- 8AI Ethics, Disclosure and Privacy RulesWhat AP's AI standards and the 2026 SPJ Code of Ethics require, what honest AI disclosure looks like, where fabrication starts, and why confidential material stays out of cloud tools.17 min
- 9Worked Case: From Records Request to Verified FindingsOne resident's fuel card inquiry from a records request to verified findings presented to a county commission, with every AI step, every check and every number shown.22 min