---
title: "Doing research with AI tools – avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs"
date: 2023-11-09
description: "Listen here: <img src="
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/research-with-ai-dealing-with-fake-research
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Doing research with AI tools – avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs

> In this short podcast, I explore using AI tools to do research, the potential for fake URLs, and how to deal with the fabrication. I started by using Claude to summarize a podcast and provide a list of salient points, including the potential counterargument. What I didn't expect was for Claude to fabricate a list of imagined research and then summarize the fictitious research to conclude that it lended support for the counterargument. I took Claude's list of research and pasted it into ChatGPT with Bing to browse the real-time web to validate the sources. Using Claude and ChatGPT in combination worked pretty well, but overall this is a tale of caution. You have to be suspicious of research provided by AIs and know how to use each tool according to its strengths.

**Listen here:**

[Audio](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/podcasts/researchwithai.mp3)

[![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/apple_podcasts.png)](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id-rather-be-writing-podcast/id277365275) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/watchonyoutubeblack.png)](https://www.youtube.com/@idratherbewriting) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/spotify.png)](https://open.spotify.com/show/4HeOZfPGMMfViOhVS40QBD)

[Video: YouTube video player](https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Wkx3evWe2E)

By the way, here’s the [Content Strategy podcast episode](https://www.contentstrategy.com/episodes/episode-61-morgan-marie-quinn-google-getting-to-grips-with-large-language-models) that I mentioned in this podcast.