What I did 2024-2025

• Finding 5 to 7 interesting claims a day
• Using AI to check them
• Occasionally checking or sharing my results

You see this come across your feed:

Think I might be losing my keys on purpose in a minute: "A Bite Of Dark Chocolate Could Sharpen Your Memory For The Next Hour: Eating flavanol-rich foods like dark chocolate or berries may boost memory performance."

link

Track it down #1

Copy the text below:

Find me a link to the original source of this information. If not available, find me a link to the closest thing to the original source.

Click through the links, and the links in the linked items until you find the study.

Follow up #1

Copy this text:

Evaluate the evidence for the claim that _____ and provide a table that matches evidence to rebuttals and rates the strength of the evidence

Fill in the blank with the claim you are interested in -- memory benefits? Cognitive benefits? Then enter and review the evidence chart.

Once done reviewing, turn and talk to your classmate. Compare the results you got with the results they got and note differences. Then discuss the how the different types of evidence impact your confidence that chocolate improves memory in humans and why.

Follow up #2

Copy one of the following follow-ups:

How does the research that is industry funded compare to the research that is not industry funded when it comes to findings around this category of outcomes around ____?

OR

Is this ____ study industry funded?

Fill in the blank with the claim or study topic and submit.

Slides

Critical Thinking With AI, Part I (Let's Talk Science)

Thank You

Before we had modern refrigerators, people in Russia and Finland had a unique way to keep their milk fresh. They would put live brown frogs into the milk. This might sound strange, but it actually worked! The frogs helped keep the milk safe to drink for a longer time.

Follow up!

To look at this issue, copy one of the text blocks below:

Can you find the best sources to cite on the actual claim?

Where did this claim come from? Use the I in Caulfield’s SIFT Method (I for Investigate the Source) to do a lateral reading analysis of what the various people involved with this tell us about the claim. Find Better Coverage (F) to see what those most “in the know” say about the claim, subclaim, and assumptions of the original post, highlighting and commenting on any disagreement in the sources.

Give me the background to this claim and the discourse on it that I need to understand its significance (and veracity).

What has happened since these initial reports of ______? Look at newer sources and note what recent development tell us about the core claims.

Then go here and use it as a follow-up:

Frogs in milk

Track it down!

See if you can get to the study. Is it well-summarized? One note: most will be! Read carefully, but don't catch "gotcha-itis"!

Reflect?

Ask any clarifying questions you have about why peptides work, read the answers then try this prompt:

I'm going to explain what peptides are and why they work. Correct any misunderstandings or omissions. Here goes:

Then write your explanation.

Three Issues with AI (Critical Reasoning)

Links and resources

• Example Archive [In case you want to do the walkthroughs]

• Critical Thinking with AI Mode YouTube channel

• Follow-ups file

Materials at https://gtfr.org

(A site I built Monday with some help from AI)

(OK, a lot of help from AI)

Go there and click on the "Let's Talk Science" collection

Mali, West Africa -- The Dogon People. Discovered a star system a thousand years prior to modern technology & believe life began on that star (Sirius). The incredible bit? The star cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Copy the following follow-up:

Identify presuppositions of the claim that __ and attempt to source evidence for (or against) them. List them out in a chart with the evidence in one column and rebuttals in another, and categorize the strength of the evidence (e.g. weak, strong, etc)

Then click this link:

The Dogon People. Discovered a star system a thousand years prior to modern technology & believe life began on that star (Sirius). The incredible bit? The star cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Daniel Waldo: The man who proudly voted for both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Copy the following follow-up:

Identify presuppositions of the claim that Waldo voted for Washington and Lincoln and attempt to source evidence for (or against) them. List them out in a chart with the evidence in one column and rebuttals in another, and categorize the strength of the evidence (e.g. weak, strong, etc)

Then click this link:

Daniel Waldo: The man who proudly voted for both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

Here is the follow-ups file.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1khEF_mZzlaRlHiN5kPm0m_5Qwzlpn6QCMWXOYlGX0iI/edit?usp=sharing

Provide a QR code to any web page you present

Here's how:

Train Sequence

• Slides

Set of slides show professional level sourcing of a video using LLMs and LLM-assisted search.