Research with AI: get sources, then open them

AI with web search can pull an answer together fast, but its sources may be out of date, one-sided, or not even say what it claims. Learn to read, compare and date your sources.

Which tool

Suggestions by task, not a tested ranking. If a tool you already have can do the job, keep using it.

Tool	When to use it	Watch out for
Perplexity	You want "search engine plus answer": every passage comes with numbered sources you can click. For harder questions, use Research mode.	Answers are only as good as the pages it finds. Free users get limited Research queries; Pro subscribers get more.
ChatGPT	You already use ChatGPT. Ask about current events in Chat and you'll see search results and citations; for a multi-source report, use Deep research in Work.	Whether Deep research is available depends on your account and workspace. OpenAI's own docs say to treat all web results as untrusted input.
Gemini / Google AI Mode	You want an organised answer right inside Google Search (AI Mode), or a multi-page report from Gemini Deep Research.	AI Mode is only available in some countries and languages, and answers can contain mistakes. Deep Research shows you a plan first, which you can edit before it starts.
Claude	You already use Claude and want it to search and answer with citations, or to dig deeper with Research.	Research is for paid plans only and needs web search turned on; it uses up your limits faster.
DeepSeek	You want to ask in Chinese and search Chinese-language sources; turn on Search.	Open the sources as with any tool. Chinese-language results include a lot of reposts and marketing; look for the original.

How to do it the first time

In a normal chat, an AI answers mostly from what it learned during training, so it may not know about recent events. Web search lets it look things up first, answer from the pages it found, and mark where each point came from. Those sources are the most valuable part of these tools: they let you check the answer yourself.

Make the question specific and give a time frame. Phrases like “since 2026”, “the latest version” or “in the UK” help the AI skip outdated or irrelevant pages.
Ask for sources explicitly. Every key point should come with a link, a publication date and the type of source (official, news, personal blog, forum). Claude’s help pages note that writing “search the web” in your question makes sure it searches; in ChatGPT, asking about current information in Chat shows search results and citations in the answer.
Open the two or three sources that matter most. Check that the sentence really is in the original and that numbers and conditions haven’t changed. Look at the date to make sure it isn’t years-old news.
Compare sources. For anything important, find at least two independent sources. Several sites reposting the same article count as one. Official originals, regulatory documents and formal announcements beat second-hand reports.
Use deep research for big questions. Gemini Deep Research turns your question into a research plan that you can edit before it starts. In ChatGPT, pick Deep research from the + menu in Work (if your account and workspace have it). In Perplexity, switch to Research in the mode selector; Perplexity says reports usually take 2 to 4 minutes.

Prompts to copy

Replace the parts in square brackets with your own situation.

The task

Search the web and answer: [your question]
Time frame: [e.g. since 2026, or "the most recent information"]
Region: [e.g. UK / US]
Requirements:
1. Start with the conclusion in two or three sentences.
2. After each key claim, give the source, its publication date and its type (official / news / personal / forum).
3. Prefer official originals; say so when only second-hand reports exist.
4. If sources disagree, list the disagreement instead of picking one for me.
5. Finish with anything you couldn't find or aren't sure about.

Example

An illustrative example written by our editors to show the shape of a good result; not a recorded output from a specific tool.

What you give it

Sample: an AI answer about "new e-bike parking rules in a city" cites three sources: [1] A notice on the city transport department's website, March 2026 [2] A blog post from 2021 [3] A news article, which on opening doesn't mention the fine amount Help me decide which points I can rely on.

A good result looks like

[1] Official and recent: use it as the main source, but check the start date and who the notice applies to. [2] Published in 2021, before the new rules: it only describes the old rules and can't answer today's question. [3] Citation doesn't match the text: drop the "fine amount" that relied on it, or find an official source. Conclusion: keep only what [1] supports; mark the fine amount as "to be confirmed".

Check and adjust

The sources you opened actually contain the claim. AI sometimes gives citations that look real but don’t support what it says.
The source dates fit your question. Policies, prices and product features change fast, and old pages are often out of date.
Key conclusions have at least two independent sources, or an official original.
Where sources disagree, the answer says so rather than quietly picking a side.
For medical, legal or financial decisions, you’ve confirmed with a professional or an official channel.

If the result is off, you can follow up like this:

Check and fix

Go through your last answer point by point:
1. Which source supports each conclusion? Quote the sentence from that source.
2. Delete any conclusion without support in the source, or mark it "unverified".
3. Which sources are older than [date]? Replace them with newer ones, or say if you can't find any.
4. Does any conclusion rest on a single source?

Next steps

Turn your common research questions into a fixed template, such as “conclusion → sources and dates → disagreements → uncertainties”. When you need to read a whole document rather than a web summary, download the original and check it point by point using the method in Understand a document. Plans and limits for search and deep research change often; the details above are from official pages as of October 2026.