AI for Healthcare Research & Education

As with any online information, it is important to critically appraise the content generated by AI and the technology for validity and accuracy. While AI-generated outputs may sound convincing and true, users need to consider their quality before citing them in other works. You can learn more about ethical and legal considerations of GenAI applications in our guide here.

We recommend using the following checklists as a starting point in evaluating GenAI tools and outputs from these applications: the ROBOT Test and the SIFT Method. 

The ROBOT Test, developed by a team of librarians at McGill University, can be used to help assess whether an AI tool is appropriate, useful, and legitimate:

Reliability

• How reliable is the information available about the AI technology?
• If it’s not produced by the party responsible for the AI, what are the author’s credentials? Bias?
• If it is produced by the party responsible for the AI, how much information are they making available? 
  • Is information only partially available due to trade secrets?
  • How biased is they information that they produce?

Objective

• What is the goal or objective of the use of AI?
• What is the goal of sharing information about it?
  • To inform?
  • To convince?
  • To find financial support?

Bias

• What could create bias in the AI technology?
• Are there ethical issues associated with this?
• Are bias or ethical issues acknowledged?
  • By the source of information?
  • By the party responsible for the AI?
  • By its users?

Owner

• Who is the owner or developer of the AI technology?
• Who is responsible for it?
  • Is it a private company?
  • The government?
  • A think tank or research group?
• Who has access to it?
• Who can use it?

Type

• Which subtype of AI is it?
• Is the technology theoretical or applied?
• What kind of information system does it rely on?
• Does it rely on human intervention? 

Hervieux, S. & Wheatley, A. (2020). The ROBOT test [Evaluation tool]. The LibrAIry. https://thelibrairy.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-robot-test. Retrieved on March 3, 2025.

The SIFT Method, developed by a digital literacy expert Mike Caufield from the University of Washington, is a method used to assess information and can be applied to information generated by AI technologies.

CC BY 4.0 license by Mike Caulfield

Caulfield, M. (2019). The SIFT Methodology. Hapgood. https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/. Retrieved on March 3, 2025.