Pause before acting, then verify the specific claim using reliable sources. ChatGPT can sound certain while being wrong. If its advice could affect your health, rights, money, or safety, do not use the answer as a substitute for qualified help; if someone may be in immediate danger, contact local emergency services or a crisis helpline instead.
First, decide whether the advice could cause immediate harm
If you or someone else may be in immediate danger, stop using ChatGPT for guidance and contact local emergency services or a crisis helpline. Do not wait for a chatbot reply or for a content report to be reviewed. OpenAI says its optional Trusted contacts feature is not an emergency service, crisis response system, or substitute for mental health care; its guidance points people concerned about immediate safety to local emergency services or a crisis helpline: OpenAI’s Trusted contacts guidance.
For a consequential but non-urgent medical or legal question, do not act on ChatGPT’s recommendation alone. Check reliable authoritative information and speak with an appropriately qualified clinician or lawyer before making a consequential decision. The right source and professional depend on the question and your location.
For other questionable answers, verify the claim—not ChatGPT’s confidence
OpenAI says ChatGPT can give incorrect facts, invent quotes, studies, citations, or references, and answer ambiguous or complex questions with unwarranted confidence. Its information may also be outdated, omit relevant context, oversimplify a complex issue, or misrepresent scientific consensus. A polished explanation, citation, or confident tone is not proof that an answer is accurate. OpenAI’s guidance is to use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source.
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- Pause before acting. Be especially cautious when a claim could affect health, money, rights, safety, or another consequential decision.
- Pin down what needs checking. Identify the particular fact, recommendation, quote, or reference that seems questionable. Asking ChatGPT to confirm its own answer does not independently verify it.
- Open the cited source yourself. Check whether it exists, actually supports the answer’s claim, and applies to your situation. A citation that looks plausible may be inaccurate or fabricated.
- Check authoritative, current information. For important facts, compare against reliable primary sources relevant to the subject. Consider whether the information is current and applies to your location or circumstances.
- Get qualified human advice when the decision matters. Use an appropriate professional for consequential health, legal, or other specialist decisions rather than treating the chatbot as the final authority.
Web search, when available and enabled in ChatGPT, may provide more current information and citations, but it does not remove the need to inspect the cited source directly.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Report a harmful or misleading ChatGPT message
You can report problematic content through the available ChatGPT reporting options. OpenAI’s documented route for a conversation message on web and mobile is to use the thumbs-down control on the message, choose “Select an issue,” select “Safety or Legal concern,” and follow the prompts. The interface can change, so follow the current instructions shown in your app.
Shared links, conversations with GPTs, and GPTs themselves have separate reporting routes. See OpenAI’s current reporting instructions for the applicable option. OpenAI says it uses automated systems and a trained team of experts to review reports; submitting one does not guarantee a correction, a particular enforcement action, or a response by a particular time. Reporting is feedback, not an urgent-help channel. More detail is in OpenAI’s explanation of how it identifies problematic content.
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