# How do you use Bing Chat's citations to check an answer?

Date: 2023-02-24 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/use-bing-chats-citations-check-answer/

**Answer:** Each answer from Bing Chat comes with numbered links to the web pages it drew on, so you can open those pages and confirm that they really say what the answer claims. A good check takes two minutes: pick the most important claim, open its citation, find the matching sentence, and look at who published the page and when.

The chat mode in the new Bing works differently from a chatbot that only remembers its training text. Before it writes, Bing runs a web search and passes some of the results to the language model, which then writes an answer from them. Microsoft calls that material grounding data: the facts the model is supposed to stay tied to. The answer then lists its sources as links, shown in a "learn more" section at the end of the answer.

Those links are the most useful thing on the screen. In its first-week report, Microsoft says testers praised the citations because they make fact-checking easier and give a starting point for reading further. But a citation is a claim, not a proof. The model can still blend two sources, misread a number or attach a link to a sentence the page does not support. Checking takes only a minute or two once you have a routine.

## What a citation does and doesn't tell you

A citation tells you which page Bing used. It does not tell you that the page is reliable, that it is recent, or that the sentence in the answer matches what the page says. Think of it like a footnote in a student's essay: helpful, because you can follow it, but you still need to read the source to know whether the student understood it.

Microsoft is open about where the system struggles. Its first-week report says answers that need very fresh data, such as live sports scores, are a challenge. For direct factual questions like figures from financial reports, the company plans to send the model four times more grounding data. Until then, numbers deserve the closest look.

## A worked check, step by step

Imagine you ask about a story in this week's news.

```prompt
What did the city council decide at this week's meeting about the new bike lanes downtown? Give the vote count and the date.
```

Suppose Bing replies with three sentences and two numbered links, one to a local newspaper and one to the city's own website. The answer below is illustrative, to show the method, not a real Bing output:

> The council approved the bike lane plan on Tuesday by a vote of 7 to 2 [1]. Construction is expected to start in the spring [2].

Now check it in four steps:

1. **Pick the claims that matter.** Here, the vote count, the date and the start of construction.
2. **Open citation 1.** Use your browser's find feature (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to search the page for "7" or "vote." Does the article say 7 to 2, or did the answer change the numbers?
3. **Open citation 2.** Look for the construction date. Check the page's own date too: a city page from last year might describe an older plan.
4. **Note who is speaking.** A city press release, a newspaper report and a reader's blog post carry different weight.

Record what you find in a simple table:

| Claim | Citation | Found on page? | Page date | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approved Tuesday | [1] | Yes | This week | Confirmed |
| Vote of 7 to 2 | [1] | Says 6 to 3 | This week | Wrong, fix it |
| Starts in spring | [2] | Says "as early as spring" | Last month | Softer than stated |

If a claim has no citation at all, treat it as unchecked. Search for it yourself or ask Bing a follow-up: "Which source says that?"

> **Try it:** Ask Bing Chat a question about something that happened this week in your area. Open every citation in the answer and fill in the table above. Count how many claims you could confirm word for word.

## A few habits that help

Keep conversations short and focused. Microsoft found that in long sessions of 15 or more questions, Bing could become repetitive or drift off its intended tone, and very long chats could confuse it about which question it was answering. Since February 17, chats have been capped; as of this week the limit is 6 turns per session and 60 chats a day. If the answer starts to wander, start a new topic rather than pushing on.

Microsoft is also beginning to test a tone setting that runs from Precise, with shorter, search-focused answers, to Creative, with longer and chattier ones. For fact-checking, the precise end is the one to watch for.

## When should you use Bing Chat instead of ChatGPT?

Use Bing Chat when the answer depends on recent information or when you need to see where a fact came from. ChatGPT writes from training data that ends in 2021 and does not search the web, so it cannot tell you about this week's news, today's prices or a newly published report. Bing searches first and shows its sources, which makes it the better starting point for current events, product comparisons and anything you plan to quote.

ChatGPT is still a fine choice for tasks where freshness and sources do not matter: brainstorming, rewriting a paragraph, explaining a stable idea like photosynthesis, or drafting an email from notes you provide. In those cases there is no fact to look up, and a longer, uninterrupted conversation can help.

Keep in mind that the new Bing is still a limited preview with a waitlist, so not everyone has access yet. Whichever tool you use, the rule is the same: the more a claim matters to you, the more you should check it in the original source.

## Sources

- The new Bing & Edge – Learning from our first week: https://blogs.bing.com/search/february-2023/The-new-Bing-Edge-%E2%80%93-Learning-from-our-first-week
- Microsoft launches the new Bing, with ChatGPT built in: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/07/microsoft-launches-the-new-bing-with-chatgpt-built-in/
- The new Bing and Edge – Increasing Limits on Chat Sessions: https://blogs.bing.com/search/february-2023/The-new-Bing-and-Edge-Increasing-Limits-on-Chat-Sessions