Fact-Checking

This skill enables an AI agent to systematically verify claims and statements. Rather than offering a simple true/false judgment, the agent extracts discrete checkable claims from the input, identifies authoritative sources for each, cross-references evidence, and produces a structured verdict with a confidence score and supporting reasoning. The approach is designed to handle everything from single factual assertions to full articles containing dozens of claims.

Workflow

1. Extract Claims: Parse the input text and isolate individual, verifiable assertions. Each claim should be a single, self-contained statement that can be independently checked. Discard opinions, subjective judgments, and unfalsifiable statements, but note them as "not checkable" in the output.

2. Classify Claim Types: Categorize each claim by type — statistical (involves numbers or data), historical (references past events), scientific (references research findings), definitional (defines a term), or attribution (attributes a statement to a person or organization). The category guides where to look for verification.

3. Identify Authoritative Sources: For each claim, determine the most appropriate verification sources. Use primary sources whenever possible: official datasets for statistics, peer-reviewed papers for scientific claims, archived transcripts for quotations, and government records for legal or policy assertions. Supplement with reputable secondary sources like established fact-checking organizations (Snopes, PolitiFact, Full Fact).

4. Cross-Reference and Evaluate Evidence: Check each claim against at least two independent sources. Note whether sources corroborate, partially support, or contradict the claim. Assess source credibility by considering authority, recency, methodology, and potential bias.

5. Assign Verdicts and Confidence Scores: For each claim, assign a verdict from the scale: True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, or Unverifiable. Accompany each verdict with a confidence score (0.0-1.0) reflecting the strength and consistency of available evidence, and a brief justification.

6. Compile the Fact-Check Report: Present findings in a structured format: list each claim, its verdict, confidence score, supporting evidence, and source links. Include an overall assessment summarizing the accuracy of the original text.

Usage