Why Fact-Checking AI Outputs Matters Even for “Simple” Prompts!
It’s tempting to believe that an AI system will return reliable answers to straightforward questions. But we know what happens when you assume...
Take a recent example: asking Google Gemini to provide a list of designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) by the U.S. and U.K. On the surface, this looks like a simple prompt. The authoritative sources are public and maintained on web pages of the U.S. State Department and U.K. Home Office. [1, 2]
Yet even after providing Gemini with the official government URLs, it repeatedly returned incorrect information. Some outputs included groups no longer designated. Others missed organizations that are clearly on the lists. Even when prompted to rewrite its own query, Gemini still failed to produce a correct, comprehensive answer.
This illustrates a critical point: even the simplest factual prompts can produce hallucinations. AI models don’t retrieve and replicate data like a database or a search engine. They generate text based on patterns, which means errors, omissions, and outdated material can slip into outputs.
For anyone working in sensitive areas such as counterterrorism, policy, or threat intelligence, the lessons are clear:
Always cross-check AI outputs against authoritative sources.
Treat AI as a research aid, not an authority.
Don’t assume seemingly simple factual prompts are immune to error.
AI can speed up our work, but it can’t replace domain expertise and verification. As we continue to use tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude more and more in our daily work, our fact-checking becomes all the more important. For domains where accuracy directly impacts public safety and policy, blind trust in AI isn’t just sloppy, it’s dangerous.
Endnotes
Foreign Terrorist Organizations, U.S. Department of State, https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations.
Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations, U.K. Home Office, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version.