How do I actually trust my check on AI's work now?

You use the tool to save time. Then it hands you something wrong, dressed in the same confident tone as everything else it writes. You caught it once. Now every answer looks suspicious, and every answer also looks fine, and you cannot tell which is which. That is the real injury — not the error itself, but the loss of a standard for checking. You want a trick that makes verification effortless. There is none. The tool will sound equally sure whether it is right or wrong. Stop trying to detect its confidence — you cannot. Your actual job is simpler and harder: check the claim against something outside the tool. A source. A number you can add up yourself. A person who knows more than you do. This is within your power, starting now. Not a new mindset. One small habit, run on every output you plan to use — not just the ones that feel risky.