From ZDNet, August 24:
Contrary to prevailing wisdom, you can get ChatGPT to give up its sources. Here's how.
One of the biggest complaints about ChatGPT is that it provides information, but the accuracy of that information is uncertain. Those complaints exist because ChatGPT doesn't provide sources, footnotes, or links to where it derived information used in its answers.
But that's not fully true -- and ChatGPT can do more.
How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations
If you know how to properly prompt ChatGPT, it will give you sources. Here's how.
1. Write a query and ask ChatGPT
To start, you need to ask ChatGPT something that needs sources or citations. I've found it's better to ask a question with a longer answer, so there's more "meat" for ChatGPT to chew on.
Keep in mind that ChatGPT can't provide any information after 2021 and requests about information pre-internet (say, for a paper on Ronald Reagan's presidency) will have far fewer available sources.
Here's an example of a prompt I wrote on a topic that I worked on a lot when I was in grad school:
Describe the learning theories of cognitivism, behaviorism, and constructivism
2. Ask ChatGPT to provide sources...
....MUCH MORE
ZDNet is a cut above the usual blather you run into re: AI, ML and the 'bots.
Now if Tiernan Ray would do an update on Nvidia....
