Skip to content
Module
Module 2 of 5Lesson 2 of 2~12 min

Fabrications, sources and confidential data

An AI assistant can make up a source, misread a document or expose sensitive information. This lesson helps you recognize these three risks before they cost you or your company, and choose for each task the right precaution before you start using the tool.

Take this lesson: your first course is freeSee the full syllabus

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to spot the three main risks of an AI assistant (fabrications, misread sources, exposed data) and choose the right precaution before using it for a given task.

Topics covered

  • AI hallucinations
  • sources
  • confidential data
  • AI risks

In the glossary

Full glossary

Where it fits

Understanding what these tools do

What happens when I ask an AI assistant a question, and what becomes of what I paste into it?

Lessons in this module

  1. How an AI assistant produces an answer
  2. Fabrications, sources and confidential data (this lesson)

What you will learn in the course

This lesson is part of the course Choosing and using AI tools at work

  • Explain how a generative AI assistant works and what it does well or badly, so you know what to ask of it.
  • Identify a tool's limits (fabrications, sources, freshness, data privacy) and the precautions to take before using it.
  • Write a clear request (task, context, data, format, criteria) that produces a usable first result.
  • Diagnose why a response falls short and fix it with a targeted clarification.
  • Select the right tool for a deliverable using a grid of criteria (deliverable, data, sources, cost, language, integration) and justify the choice.
  • Choose the right way of working for a task (conversation, project, deep research, agent) and the level of control that goes with it.
  • Build your toolkit by comparing at least two tools on a real task with criteria written in advance.

Related courses