2.3 — Fact-Checking and Validation Techniques

CCAO-F Domain 2 · Task 2.3

What You Need to Know

Validation effort is ordered cheapest to heaviest, with a judgement layer for proportionality.

Cheapest First: The Source You Gave It

For output built from attached material, the first check is the attachment. Reach for anything heavier only when the given source cannot settle it.

Independent, Authoritative, Primary

External claims need external checking. The standard is the primary document (official publication, regulator’s text, funder’s published criteria, organisation’s records). A second AI summary, a forum post, or Claude’s own earlier output is not independent validation.

Make the Output Traceable

Ask Claude to quote relevant parts of the source / show where each claim came from. Spot-check the weighty ones. When a single figure drives the decision, triangulate it in two independent places.

Proportionality

Validation effort follows consequence. Heavy checking on low-stakes work is also wrong. Self-check is a cheap first pass for arithmetic slips and contradictions; it is not independent validation.

Key Concept: When a validation item offers several checking plans, test each against: (1) Does independent information enter the check? (2) Does the depth match what rides on each claim?

Exam Traps

• Asking Claude to confirm or re-check its claims and calling that verification
• Checking a claim against another AI summary or Claude’s own earlier output
• Verifying every sentence to the same maximal depth regardless of stakes