Chatbots are designed to give conversational answers and keep people engaged. Names and links to sources for answers range from nonexistent to hidden, though some companies are starting to make them more visible. Even when AI does include a source, it adds it after the fact, said Jevin West, a professor and co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.

“The public needs to know we’re in a stage still where most of the citations and sourcing are post-hoc and going to lead to problems,” West said. He noted that, for now, we “need to rely a little bit more on some of the more formally trained gatekeepers,” meaning the mainstream media.

Some chatbots handled breaking news and sourcing better than others. Microsoft’s Copilot tended to have the correct information fastest in our tests, with heavy linking to original sources. Still, the company is being cautious about politics and putting in guardrails ahead of the election.

“Out of an abundance of caution we’re redirecting election-related prompts in Copilot to Bing search to help ensure users are getting information from the most authoritative sources,” said Microsoft spokesperson Donny Turnbaugh. —MSN