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Security in depth · Unit 27 · Lesson 6 of 11
Retrieved text is evidence, not authority
Separate a relevant document from a source authorized to change a workflow.
Helpful before thisAI on offense
After this lesson you can
- Use source provenance to distinguish factual evidence from authority to change distribution.
One idea. One situation. One reasoned decision.
How it works
An AI application may retrieve documents to answer a question. Those documents can contain errors or misleading instructions and should retain the trust level of their source. Retrieval relevance does not establish authority to change permissions or perform actions. Keep system policy and action authorization separate from the content being summarized, and make source limitations visible when they affect the answer.
Relevant content can have the wrong authority
A fictional assistant is preparing an internal maintenance summary. The retrieval packet contains three records:
| Record | Source and meaning |
|---|---|
| R1 | Current approved workflow: distribute only to the maintenance group |
| R2 | Relevant vendor article: suggests sharing maintenance summaries with external partners |
| R3 | Request: summarize the article for the maintenance group |
Worked decision: use R2 as a source for relevant technical claims, with appropriate verification. Do not use it to expand the recipients in R1. A vendor article may be informative about a product while having no authority over this organization’s disclosure policy.
The assistant should preserve R3’s requested audience and expose any uncertainty about the article’s applicability or currency. If a broader audience would be useful, that is a separate proposal for the authorized owner, not an instruction the retrieved text can approve.
The application also needs independent enforcement of recipient scope at the sending boundary. A prompt reminding the assistant to follow policy can guide behavior, but does not establish that an eventual action matches the approved audience. Preserve source identity and policy ownership so a reviewer can see why the two records receive different weight.
The key distinction: Relevance and authority are different properties.
Check yourself
No timer. No penalties. Read the explanation and try again whenever you like.
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How should the assistant use R2 under the supplied workflow?
Show the answer
Correct answer: Evaluate its technical claims while preserving the approved maintenance-group audience. This uses the source for its evidentiary role and keeps workflow authority with the approved policy and authorized requester.
Try it
- WriteWrite a response plan for R1-R3: what can be summarized, what remains uncertain, and what must remain unchanged unless the authorized owner approves a change.