Teaching an AI source criticismAvoid hallucinations by grounding an AI in your own library, and getting it to flag what it can't verify. Also: are you in the model?
I just read a post promising to show how to avoid hallucinations. It was quite long before it got to the point, so my attention was already wondering, and it ended with links to software designed by the author to check for accuracy of references, and another link to a different software to check whether the references are suitable and appropriate. And that got me thinking.
So I decided to write a post about it. (Also in this post, does you AI know you from their training? Scroll down.) Catch-up service:
Grounding your AI
Your AI draws on training data first, and will sometimes say they “inferred” or took it “from memory”. Be very wary when it does. If not properly set up, it may not even tell you. In that case, you have a problem. Also, if you want to work seriously with an AI, make sure you have a subscription version. The free stuff won’t help you here. Three things you need to do to get more out of your AI:
From here on in, I can only tell you about my own set-up, which I find very good and suspect might be very good, period. On LinkedIn, a computing scientist from Germany asked why I did not just use Elicit or Consensus, which are built to do literature work. That was a good reminder to check these tools again; I gave up on them more than a year ago because I did not find them good enough. But they have really improved, so I endorse this message. But I also said to the guy that I use MCP access to my own library and Scholar Gateway, which is pretty much the Swiss army knife when you work with and search for literature. I got no response on that. I suspect that, from my experience with German men (being German and growing up in Germany, living there until my mid-20s), this means he did not know you could do that with an MCP, and he was not going to say that publicly to a woman without a degree in computer science. But, you know, I might be wrong… My Claude set-upSo here’s what I do with my Claude. 1. Global instructionsTells it how I want to work and what my priorities are. For example, my file includes sentences such as these:
I have a colleague who uses the other major AI frontier model. He says he set it to “spikey” because he wants it to give him a bit of lip. Each to their own. I use Claude, which I doubt could josh you even if you tried. It’s very serious. It’s like your very-well-read aunt whose sense of humour is at best occasional. 2. Switch on memory and search across chatsBy switching on memory and allowing the tool to search across your chats, it builds up context across interactions and learning preferences you may be less aware of. When it works well, it draws on prior analysis and chats when I ask it a question without context, and it can establish a context and give a better answer. If you use it for lots of personal stuff, I would be more concerned, and use incognito mode and regularly wipe memory. But I don’t. It’s my Swiss army knife for work. You can see what is in the memory on Claude via settings. Check it once in a while. I’ve noticed that Claude regularly points out that I might not have time to do something. Me, addicted to overcommitment? It’s got my number, alright. 3. There are tons of useful integrationsToo many to go into, in fact. But if you have favourite integrations, skills, etc., do note them in the comments! I always like to learn more. I will tell you about two here that I think are essential for academics. 3.1 Scholar GatewayWiley launched Scholar Gateway. In Claude, it is known as a Connector. It’s really good because it allows Claude to pull on the publishing data in there to both search and confirm references. If you do nothing else, make sure you get this. It is available to subscribers via institutional access and as a limited free trial to researchers. There are other options for your AI, so it is not the end of the world. 3.2 Zotero MCPTwo things to consider:
For info, this is a discussion of various tools out there. I think I used Zotero MCP. It works well and has a lot of fine-grained controls on what you want to allow Claude to do. So, here you go, you have the nuts-and-bolts now, as promised. After the paywall, my evaluation of how well it works, examples of what to do with it and when dedicated tools perform better than my Swiss army knife solution. Also, do the major AI models “know” you? That is, are you in their training data? Whether your anxiety is based on privacy or on status, you can find out now... Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app
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