How should I use AI for policy research without over-trusting it?

AI is moving into research and analysis, and you feel the pull to one of two safe-seeming poles: resisting it, or trusting it without question. In policy work, both are costly. One leaves you slow, the other leaves you wrong. The better stance is to use it as a fast, fallible assistant. Let it gather, summarize, and draft. But remember it has no stake in the truth and no accountability for the outcome. It can be confidently wrong and quietly biased. The analysis it hands you is a starting point, never a conclusion, and treating it as more is where people get burned. So bring it in, but keep the verifying and the judgment for yourself. This week, use an AI tool for one real task, then check its key claims against real sources before you rely on any of it. That rhythm, use then verify, lets you gain the speed without surrendering the rigor your work depends on.