What it can and cannot do.
WHAT IT DOES WELL
Explaining an unfamiliar subject at the level you ask Summarising material you provide Identifying what questions to ask Suggesting where to look Comparing approaches
WHAT IT DOES BADLY
Providing facts you can rely on without checking Citing sources accurately Knowing current information, unless it can search
THE CITATION PROBLEM
Models invent references. They look entirely real: plausible authors, plausible titles, plausible journals.
Never cite anything from AI output without verifying it exists and says what is claimed.
HOW TO RESEARCH WELL WITH AI
Use it to understand the shape of a subject Use it to generate questions to investigate Use it to summarise sources you found yourself Verify everything specific
THE MOST RELIABLE USE
Give it the source material and ask questions about that material.
The answer is then grounded in something real.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Treat it as a search engine Use its output as a source Publish a statistic it produced without checking
