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FlintFlintby Torch
← Level 1Builder · L1

Audit an answer before you use it

Build-along · ~12 min at your own keyboard

Ask for three testimonials for your roofing company and the assistant writes three. Each has a first name, a town and five stars. None of them exist. Ask for a sales page and it adds 'our customers earn $4,000 a month'. You never said that. The tell is detail you did not supply: a name, a town, a dollar figure, a percentage, a date. If you did not paste it, it is invented. Published as a customer's words, that is a fake review, and the rule against those is dated below. Published as a result, it is a claim you cannot prove. So before an answer leaves your screen, you tag it. Three tags: G for a fact you gave it or it cites something you can open; W for something it worked out from what you gave it; M for something it made up. G stays. W gets a second look. M gets proof or gets cut. Twelve minutes, on one answer you were about to use.

Ladder · Level 1The long version: Prompting ↗

Do this

0/6

Checkpoints

  • ▸You should now see one real answer with every claim underlined and a G, W or M beside each.
  • ▸You should now see a proof location next to every M you kept, and every M without one cut.
  • ▸You should now see a clean version with no invented name, number, quote or result in it.
The three ways this goes wrong
  • Everything got tagged G because 'it sounds right'. — G means you gave it or you can open the source now. Go back through and ask, for each one: where in my paste is this? If it is not there, it is W or M.
  • An M stayed in because it is probably true and you will check later. — Probably true is the whole problem. Either find the proof now, or cut the line and send the shorter version. Shorter and true beats longer and maybe.
  • The assistant said none of it was invented, so you stopped. — It grades its own work the way it wrote it. Do the tagging yourself against your own paste. Use its answer as a second opinion, never as the audit.

Dated facts in this lesson: The FTC acts on deceptive claims under section 5 of the FTC Act. 'AI-powered', 'guaranteed' and earnings claims all need proof the business holds before the claim is made. [S] secondary source; the statute page was not re-read (researched Oct 5, 2026, not yet confirmed by a person: check the source before you rely on it); The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule (16 CFR Part 465) bans fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-written ones and reviews the business did not receive. In effect since October 21, 2024. [S] secondary source (researched Oct 5, 2026, not yet confirmed by a person: check the source before you rely on it).

Share what happened

Paste the answer with your G, W and M tags on every claim, the proof location you wrote next to each M you kept, and the clean version underneath.

Strip API keys, passwords, and tokens before you paste. Swap them for [KEY].

🔒 Don't paste confidential, personal-health, or payment info.