Evaluating Information Online

Often finding information is less of a problem than figuring out whether that information will be appropriate for your project. One way to decide whether a source is “good” for your project or not, is to begin by asking some questions about the source. Remember! Evaluation is a holistic process. One of these questions isn’t enough to determine a source’s usefulness. You need to take them all into consideration.

WHO created the source?

• What authority does the author/organization have to present on this topic?
• What are their credentials? Are they connected to the field they are writing about?
• Are they affiliated with any specific organizations? Could this impact their reliability?
• Is there contact information for the author or publisher?

WHAT is the purpose of the source?

• Is it informing? Selling? Entertaining? Persuading?
• Does the point of view appear to be objective or does it appear to be strongly biased?
• Is the language emotional pointing to a personal connection to the topic?
• Are any included images appropriate to the topic and clearly labeled or cited?
• If on a website: What URL does the site use and what does this suggest about the source?
• If on a website: Are the ads clearly separated from the information?

WHERE does the information come from?

• Does the source use evidence to support its claims?
• Are there any references? If so, are they appropriate to the topic and source?
• Are there references or works cited lists? If so, what kinds of sources are being cited?
• Can the information be verified with another source?
• Is the source presenting fact or opinion?
• Does the source contain spelling, grammar, or typographical errors?

WHEN was the source published?

• Has the information been updated or revised if necessary?
• Does your topic require very recent information, or will older sources be acceptable or even preferred?
• If on a website: Is a date given for when the information was posted?
• If on a website: Are there important links that are now dead or overall are they kept up to date?

WHY is this source useful to you?

• Who is the intended audience?
• Is the information at an appropriate level for your needs (i.e. not too simplistic/not too advanced)?
• Does the information help to answer your research question or develop your argument?
• Does the source add new information or simply repeat or summarize other perspectives?

With the proliferation of AI-generated content, it is crucial that users evaluate every piece of information thoroughly to determine its reliability, trustworthiness, and authority. While there are benefits of using Generative AI, it has several potential issues that users need to keep in mind. Some of the issues include: 

• Reliability:  Natural language processing tools, language models, or chatbots, are trained on a collection of writing to generate human-like text in response to a prompt, not necessarily to generate truthful or reliable answers.  
• Transparency:  In the same way that natural language processing tools, language models, or chatbots, are not necessarily generating truthful or reliable answers, they are not specifically created to locate and credit the sources for the responses they generate.
• Bias:  Since natural language processing tools, language models, or chatbots, are trained on a large body of writing created by humans with human biases the responses generated could reflect and further enforce those same biases.
• Privacy:  Like any online platform, AI tools accept the input of private information from users who may not be aware of how the platform intends to use that information.
• Equity:  Many generative AI tools, both text and image-based, were trained on large collections of material taken from the internet without prior approval or involvement from the human authors who created the content.  These same human authors will be forced to compete for their livelihood with an automated system that can work faster.
  • Many AI tools also perpetuate the dominance of English in online spaces, threatening Indigenous languages.
  • Access to powerful, quality, AI tools may require payment and thus divide those who cannot afford to pay for the tools from the advantages enjoyed by those who can pay.

Who is the author? Could their view be biased in any way?

Text or images generated by AI tools have no human author, but they are trained on materials created by humans with human biases.  Unlike humans, AI tools cannot reliably distinguish between biased material and unbiased material when using information to construct their responses.

What was the intended audience?

Generative AI tools can be used to generate content for any audience based on the user’s prompt.

What is the intended purpose of the content?  Was it created to inform, to make money, to entertain?   

Generative AI tools can create convincing text and images that can be used to propagate many different ideas without being clear that the information or images could be false.

Where was it published?  Was it in a scholarly publication, a website, or an organization page?

Generative AI has already been used to create content for websites and news outlets. Considering whether the source is scholarly, has a good reputation and has a clear history of providing reliable information is useful for figuring out whether the information you find is useful or misleading.

Does it provide sources for the information?

Articles, news outlets, and websites that provide sources could be an indicator of reliability.  Further assessing the sources by following the links and citations to verify the information will help confirm that the information you find is reliable.

Credit: AI Tools and Resources, University of South Florida Libraries