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Level 1 of 4 · Getting Started · Lesson 3 of 6

Research and Source-Grounded AI

Web lookup, research modes, source notebooks, and AI in legal databases, and how to tell a tool's access from its answer's support.

About 15 minutes

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By the end of this lesson you should be able to

  • Tell apart quick web lookup, multi-step research modes, source notebooks, and AI inside legal research databases
  • Ask of any research tool how it gets its evidence, and whether its answer actually follows from that evidence
  • Choose a starting tool for a question that needs sources, and name what you would still have to check

When the answer needs evidence

Some tasks start with a first explanation: what a term means, how a process usually works. Others are source-based from the start: the date on an official notice, what a reading actually says, which cases address a question. A first explanation still needs checking against a reliable source once you rely on it. For source-based tasks, which tool you open matters from the outset, because tools differ in where they can look. This lesson surveys the kinds of research features you will meet. How to research carefully, and how to verify what you find, are taught in the Intermediate lessons on research and grounding and verification.

Two questions apply to every tool in this lesson:

  1. How can the tool get relevant evidence? From text you paste in, from the open web, from a collection you or the provider chose, or from a licensed database.
  2. Does the answer actually follow from that evidence? Open the cited passage and compare.

The first question is about access; the second is about support. A tool can have excellent access and still write a sentence its sources do not support. And a pasted document can support a good answer with no search at all.

Four kinds of research features

Quick web lookup

Many assistants can search the web and cite pages. OpenAI describes ChatGPT search as looking up “recent or real-time information on the internet.” (OpenAI: ChatGPT capabilities overview (opens in a new tab)) Useful for finding an official page or a recent public announcement. It reaches only what the search finds and can open; subscription databases are usually out of reach.

Multi-step research modes

Longer research features plan a search, look at many sources, and write a structured report. There is no mystery to it: the application runs a series of searches and readings, then summarizes. OpenAI describes its deep research as reading and synthesizing “content across multiple online sources”; Anthropic says Claude’s Research conducts “multiple searches that build on each other” and requires web search to be on; Google says Gemini’s Deep Research “will create a research plan” and uses Google Search by default, with other sources such as Drive available only if you connect them. (OpenAI: ChatGPT capabilities overview (opens in a new tab); Anthropic: Use research on Claude (opens in a new tab); Google: Use Deep Research in Gemini Apps (opens in a new tab); provider documentation.) Availability depends on plan and account settings. Turning on a research mode does not itself grant a subscription or permission. Some products can use licensed or authenticated sources through supported, authorized connections; OpenAI says deep research can use supported connected apps and authenticated data services available to your account, and that not every app supports it. Others cannot. Check the actual source coverage and your account’s permissions. (OpenAI: Deep research in ChatGPT (opens in a new tab)) Planning a search, having access to a source, and covering a topic completely are three different things; the report is a starting map, not a finished review.

Source notebooks

A source notebook works from materials you choose. Google’s Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM; Google announced the new name on July 16, 2026) lets you add PDFs, web pages, Google Docs, and other sources, ask questions with in-line citations, and turn the sources into study guides, briefings, or audio overviews. (Google: Learn about Gemini Notebook (opens in a new tab); Google: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook (opens in a new tab).) Stanford offers it with Stanford Google accounts, and its service page limits the information you may put in it. (Stanford UIT: Gemini Notebook (opens in a new tab))

Google says the notebook is “designed to answer questions based on the information provided in your uploaded sources.” That describes the design; it is not a guarantee about every sentence. A citation linked to a passage lets you check the claim quickly, but clicking it is how the checking starts, not a sign that it is done. An audio or video overview is a generated summary of your sources, not the sources themselves or an authoritative reading of them.

AI inside legal research databases

Legal research platforms now include AI features that answer questions from their own collections of cases, statutes, and secondary sources. Thomson Reuters, for example, describes Westlaw’s AI-Assisted Research as answering legal questions with linked citations to authorities, drawing on Westlaw’s primary law. (Thomson Reuters help: Westlaw deep research or AI-assisted research (opens in a new tab); product help.) These tools reach licensed material that general assistants usually cannot, which is a real advantage for legal questions. Coverage is still limited to what the product includes, and the answer still has to be checked against the authorities it cites. Lesson 5 introduces the legal tools available at SLS.

Which one should I open?

  • You have the source already (a public reading, a policy page): paste or upload it, or put it in a notebook, and ask about that text.
  • You need a current public fact: web search, then open the page it cites.
  • You need a first map of a topic: a research mode, treated as a list of leads.
  • You need legal authority: a legal research database and its AI features, or a librarian (library@law.stanford.edu).
  • You need a known page or record: ordinary search or the library catalog may be faster than any AI tool.

Try it: three tools, three tasks

Fictional tools and tasks. Nothing here describes a real product’s coverage.

  • Tool A, a web-search assistant. Searches the open web and cites pages. No access to subscription databases.
  • Tool B, a notebook. Answers only from the sources loaded into it. Loaded: the course syllabus and three assigned public articles (published 2019, 2021, and 2023).
  • Tool C, a licensed legal research service. Covers federal cases and the statutes of all fifty states, updated weekly according to its description. Does not include law review articles.
  1. Find the date of a public lecture announced on the law school’s events page last week.
  2. Prepare questions about how the three assigned articles differ on one point.
  3. Identify law review articles published this year on the same topic.

For each task: which tool could help, what evidence or access is missing, and what would you still check?

Answers and discussion
  1. Tool A. The events page is public and recent. Check the date on the events page itself, not only in Tool A’s answer. Tool B does not contain the page; Tool C does not cover event pages.
  2. Tool B. The three articles are loaded. Check each claimed difference against the passage it cites. The loaded collection cannot support claims about material outside it.
  3. Tool A, as a starting point. It can surface openly available articles and bibliographic leads, such as titles, abstracts, journal pages, and authorized open copies. Check each lead’s publication date, whether it is actually a law review article, its relevance, and the source itself. Tool B’s loaded readings (2019 to 2023) cannot establish this year’s literature, and Tool C expressly excludes law review articles. Finding an article on the open web, having access to its full text, and knowing your coverage is comprehensive are different questions: a subscription article may still have a publicly discoverable title, abstract, or authorized open copy. To broaden and verify coverage, use a suitable law-review index or database, or ask a librarian; no single database guarantees a complete search.

Notice what task 3 teaches: a tool can supply useful leads without establishing full coverage or full-text access. Say what it gave you, and what you would still need.

Access first, then support. Before trusting a research answer, ask where the tool could look, and then open what it cites. “Source-based” or “grounded” in a product description tells you how it is meant to work, not that every answer is right.

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