How AI assistants decide which sources to trust when answering

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AI assistants do not browse the web to answer questions but draw on a small, pre-selected set of sources they already consider credible. Unlike search engines, which present many options for users to judge, assistants produce a single answer, so they favor sources that are clear and easy to quote. Pages that vaguely describe a business tend to be excluded even when they rank well, while consistent descriptions, dated and attributable writing, and third-party coverage are more likely to be used. The author notes that backlinks and popularity matter less than clarity and accuracy, and that different assistants can name different companies because they weigh overlapping sources differently. Because answers depend on their sources, they can shift when those sources change, though the exact weighting remains unknown outside the labs.

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