Verifiability and fact-checking

The bar for including a claim on AI Wiki is not whether we believe it; it is whether a reader can check it. If a claim cannot be traced to a source, it does not belong in an article.

The rule

• Every substantive claim (names, dates, figures, benchmark scores, funding amounts, technical specifications, quotations) must be supported by a numbered reference the reader can follow.
• Inline markers like [3] tie the specific sentence to the specific source. A reference list without inline markers is treated as incomplete, and the article is flagged.
• If sources disagree, the article says so and cites both sides. If a claim cannot be verified, it is omitted; we would rather be silent than wrong.

Independent fact-checks, stamped on the page

Editing and verification are separate processes here, and the article header keeps them apart:

• Updated: every article shows when its text last changed, for any reason. The full record of changes is in the article's revision history.
• Fact-checked: a green "Fact-checked" label with a date appears only on articles that have had an independent fact-check, in which a reviewer checked the article's claims against its cited sources: that the sources exist, say what the article says they say, and have not been superseded. Selecting it shows what the check covered. This stamp is set only by a completed fact-check pass, never by an ordinary edit, and an article without one shows no label at all.

Fact-checking runs in waves, not continuously, and we would rather tell you where that has got to than describe an ambition. Right now 1,094 of 4,757 articles (23%) carry a fact-check stamp, the oldest dated July 23, 2026. An article without one is still citation-backed and still governed by the rule above; it has not yet had a second reader walk its sources. Waves are prioritized by how heavily an article is linked and how fast its subject moves.

An article whose check finds problems is flagged on the page ("flagged for review" or "sources conflict") until the problems are fixed; we would rather show you the flag than pretend the problem is not there. 2 article(s) are flagged for review and 0 are marked as having conflicting sources.

What happens when we are wrong

Errors get fixed, and substantive fixes are logged publicly on the corrections page. Any reader can report a problem with the "Report issue" button on every article (no account needed). So far we have received 2 reports and reviewed 1, taking a median of 4.8 days. 1 is waiting, the oldest since September 26, 2026. Suggested edits from readers are reviewed before they go live. So far we have received 13 suggested edits and reviewed 12, taking a median of 16 days. 1 is waiting, the oldest since October 14, 2026. That is our record rather than a target, and the report figures are also on the statistics page. Every article also keeps a complete public revision history, so nothing changes silently.

What this means for you

Citing AI Wiki? The sourcing standards describe what our references mean, and each article's Cite button produces a citation with its access date. For the strongest claim-level confidence, follow our inline references to the primary sources; that is what they are for.