Source substitution occurs when an AI answer replaces the canonical governing source with a secondary or more convenient source.
CollectionDefinition
TypeDefinition
Version1.0
Stabilization2026-05-13
Published2026-05-13
Updated2026-05-13
Source substitution
Source substitution occurs when an AI-mediated answer relies on, cites, or appears to validate a secondary source where a canonical or governing source should have controlled the claim.
The substitution can be visible, when the wrong URL is cited, or silent, when a third-party source structures the answer while the official source is merely displayed or ignored. The correction usually requires stronger canonical surfaces, clearer internal routing and reduced ambiguity across external sources.
A canonical source is the explicitly authorized source from which an identity, claim, definition, rule, perimeter, or exclusion must be reconstructed before…
Canonical definition of proof of fidelity: the minimum evidence required to show that an AI output remains faithful to the canon rather than merely plausible.
Audit service for evaluating whether a site, corpus, page or entity is accessible, retrievable, extractable, citable and governable in AI-mediated answers.