Course overview

This course teaches learners to find, judge and verify information when text, images, audio and video can all be generated by AI in seconds. It combines the evidence on how misinformation spreads with the practical methods professional fact-checkers use. Learners leave with a repeatable routine they can apply in under a minute.

AI tools are now a daily information source, and they make mistakes. In a 2025 EBU/BBC study, 45% of AI assistant answers about news had at least one significant issue. AI-generated "news" sites tracked by NewsGuard grew from 49 in May 2023 to 3,006 by March 2026. The course treats AI as a useful starting point that always needs checking.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
1. Distinguish misinformation, disinformation and malinformation, and classify a misleading item using the seven-type spectrum.
2. Explain why AI language models produce fluent but false content ("hallucinations"), and name the details most at risk: citations, quotes, statistics, names, dates and recent events.
3. Describe how generative AI enables synthetic text, images, voice and video, and the risks each creates.
4. Identify the cognitive biases and platform dynamics that make false information spread, including confirmation bias, the illusory truth effect and automation bias.
5. Apply the SIFT method (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace) to check a claim in about 90 seconds.
6. Use lateral reading to judge a source's credibility by checking what independent sources say about it.
7. Verify images and video with reverse image search and context checks, and explain what content provenance (C2PA) can and cannot prove.
8. Check an AI-generated answer by opening its cited sources and confirming they support each claim.
9. Spot common statistical red flags, such as a missing denominator, a truncated axis or a cherry-picked timeframe.
10. Adopt personal verification habits, including the pause before sharing, call-back checks for urgent requests, and correcting mistakes openly.