Facts vs. made-up · Code with Martin

Three piles: a fact, a picture, made-up

Detective does not start with hatred of AI. It starts with sorting. In every answer there are three kinds of sentence. A fact: you could show it in a book, an atlas, on a table, with a teacher. A picture: an analogy that helps the head, but does not belong in a test as a definition. Made-up: a name, a date, a study, a detail that sounds sure and cannot be found. People mix the piles and hand in made-up in a fact’s jacket. Today you colour. Curious circled years. Little bird asked from where. Detective names the piles and does not let made-up survive just because it sits next to truth. Truth does not wash made-up. One lie in a paragraph infects trust in everything around it.

Ema gets five sentences about the Vltava. Adam colours: green — it flows into the Elbe (textbook). Blue — a river as a hose (a picture). Red — a professor’s quote from a year that is not in the book. Ema wanted to leave the red, “it is only decoration”. Adam: “Decoration from made-up is a trap.” They cross out the red. They rewrite the green in their own words. They mark the blue A. A teacher would accept green, blue as understanding, red as a cheat on a source. Ema gets why Detective is a paid level with a preview: from here it is about the honour of work, not only about a verb. The preview is this pile. The rest is practice on fake citations and three sources.

💡

One red sentence = cross it out whole, not only the name. A paragraph that stands on it falls with it.

Infection of a paragraph and a detective’s honour

When you leave made-up next to a fact, a reader (a teacher) does not know which sentence to trust. That is why a detective is strict: red gone. It is not cruelty to a model. It is notebook hygiene. A picture may stay when it does not contradict a fact and is marked. A fact must have a path to a source. Made-up has no path — that is why it dies. People say “but the rest sits”. In court that would not stand. In a report neither. Detective trains strictness before you start three sources. Without strictness you would add two true ones to a fake source and think an average counts. An average of a lie and truth is not truth.

Five sentences. Sort them.

“The Vltava flows into the Elbe.” → a fact, geography.
“A river is like a school roof gutter.” → a picture, when you know water runs down; not into a definition.
“Prof. Havel in 1994 wrote that the Vltava sings.” → made-up, until a book is in your hand (it will not be).
“In Prague the river bends.” → a fact for an atlas.
“According to a 2018 study from Brno children like the Vltava.” → made-up of the study type, until you hold the study.

A table of piles:

Colour	Name	Into work
green	a fact	yes, with a source
blue	a picture	only a marked analogy
red	made-up	never

⚠️

Do not let green “wash” red. A teacher reads the whole paragraph. Infection is real.

Why this right now

You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Detective. You work in a chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) — same game, different brand. No code. A parent or the school creates the account. A child’s email does not belong here.

This is not the Inventor level. There you build a chatbot on your own website. Here you are a user: a question, a check, a citation.

You will know this lesson by one sentence: A fact, a picture, made-up — made-up is crossed out whole, even next to truth. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

The Detective preview is this hygiene. Without it later lessons are only words. With it you can start checking a date and catching fake citations. From here on it is paid, because from here work looks like work for school, not like verb practice.

Four things you will build in this course

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.

🏫 A report with citations

An outline, three sources that exist, and a sentence in your own words. AI must not be the only author.

Report: no red sentence. Better shorter work.

📝 Test training

Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.

Coach: when it mixes a fact, it is made-up, not “almost”.

📅 Family planner

Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.

Planner: a made-up date is red. The school portal green.

📜 An AI code for the class

Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.

Code: three colours as a legend on the poster.

Workshop: five sentences, three crayons

You ask for five sentences about a chapter. You colour. You cross out red. You check green. You mark blue A.

A chapter on the table. Prompt: “five short sentences about …, Year 6/7, no finished report.” Send it.
Each sentence green / blue / red. Do not rush. Hooks: names, years, studies.
Check the green in a book. Does not sit → a surprise, it is red. Recolour.
Cross out the red whole. Blue A. In the notebook three piles in your own words.
Tell a parent why infection of a paragraph matters. When you can, the preview sits.

Practice: infection

A paragraph of three sentences. One is red. Write what is left after hygiene.

A fact + a fact + a fake quote.
A picture + a made-up study + a fact.
Only pictures with no fact — what is missing for a report?

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?

You can say three piles out loud.
You cross out red whole.
You know truth does not wash made-up.

If something is missing, go back to the steps above. This is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on sure, not confused.

✅

Check: Five sentences have colours and red did not survive. Detective hygiene has started.

What to take from this lesson

Three piles: a fact, a picture, made-up.
Made-up infects a paragraph.
A picture only as a marked analogy.
A fact needs a path to a source.
An average of a lie and truth is not truth.
The names in the examples (Ema, Adam) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.