Sense and decide
The Checker
A rotating role, held by someone other than the author, who verifies each claim against its source.
Borrowed from magazine fact-checking departments, where a checker other than the writer verifies every claim. Read the original source.
Changes a rule or role · Minutes to start · Anyone on the team can start it
Try this first
On an important piece, name one person who is not the author to verify each key claim against its source.
Use it when
AI-authored work needs a human check but authors are checking their own work.
Skip it when
It suits work where claims can be checked and being wrong costs something. It is overkill on low-stakes output, and it is a second line, not a substitute for the author's own care.
How to introduce it
Give one person the job of verifying claims against sources, and make sure it is not the author. Magazine fact-checkers work an annotated draft, confirming each fact. For AI-authored work it turns verification from a vague assumption that somebody looked into a named responsibility.
How to show up
Rotate the role so it is not one person's burden. Insist the check runs against sources, not as a read-through. Protect the checker's time, because thorough checking is slow and gets cut first.
How long it takes
Setup is minimal. The checking itself takes real time per piece.
What makes it hard
Checking is slow and wins nobody any credit, so it gets skipped under pressure. Protecting the time is the whole challenge. Watch for a fluent read that trusts the fluent text instead of chasing the source.
What it looks like when it's working
Someone other than the author checks claims before work goes out, and catches errors a read-through would miss. A quick skim by the author means the role is not real.
How long until it sticks
A few weeks to establish the role and keep the checking thorough rather than nominal.
How you know it stuck
Important AI-assisted work passes through a named checker as a matter of course.
The idea behind it
Authors are the worst-placed people to catch their own errors. AI-authored work needs a checker because it arrives looking finished.
Where it comes from
Newsroom practice. A rotating role, held by someone other than the author, who verifies claims against sources. The human check on AI-authored work, made a real seat. In the magazine model, a person other than the writer double-checks every fact and the arguments that depend on them, working from an annotated draft where each claim is attributed to a source.