Getting reliable results from AI: asking well, checking output and decisions about people
Use approved AI assistants to get useful drafts and summaries, then check them in proportion to the stakes. Covers what a clear request includes and leaves out, confabulation (NIST's term for confidently stated but false output, including invented citations and reasoning), checking summaries and numbers against the source, automation bias and over-reliance, harmful bias and homogenization, why decisions about people need an approved process with real human review, being honest about AI use, and 'shadow AI'. Your organization's AI policy governs.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 40 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 3 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Write a clear request that states the task, audience, context, format and constraints, and leaves out data the task doesn't need
- Explain confabulation and recognize invented facts, citations and reasoning in AI output
- Check an AI summary or calculation against its source, with effort proportional to the consequences
- Recognize automation bias and over-reliance in yourself and others
- Explain why AI must not decide about people outside an approved process with meaningful human review
- Respond honestly to questions about AI use, and report unapproved 'shadow AI' tools without blame
Course outline
- 1.Reliable results from AIVideo · 3 min
- 2.Asking well: clear requests with only the data you needLesson · 12 min
- 3.Checking output: confabulation, summaries and numbersLesson · 14 min
- 4.Over-reliance, bias and decisions about peopleLesson · 14 min
- 5.Getting reliable results from AI: asking well, checking output and decisions about people: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 17 questions
- 6.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
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