A project manager at an engineering consultancy asked Claude to turn her notes and a pasted finance tracker extract into a monthly status report for the client's steering group, which meets tomorrow. The executive summary says the project is on budget, but the cost table later in the same report shows spending 12 percent over the approved budget. The steering group will decide on extra funding from this report. What should she do before sending it?
- AAsk Claude which of the two statements is correct and keep whichever version it confirms
- BDelete the on-budget sentence from the summary, since tables are usually more reliable than prose
- CCheck both figures against the finance tracker, correct the wrong one, and recheck related claims Correct
- DRegenerate the whole report with the same prompt until the summary and the table agree
Why A is wrong: Tempting because Claude produced both statements and seems best placed to reconcile them, but its answer is just another generated claim, not evidence, and it may confidently pick the wrong figure.
Why B is wrong: Tempting because the table looks more precise, but precision is not accuracy. Either part could be the error, and removing the sentence without checking the source could leave a wrong table in front of a funding decision.
Why C is correct: The contradiction shows that at least one statement is wrong, and only the finance tracker can say which. Correcting against the source and rechecking claims built on that figure, such as forecasts or risk ratings, makes the report safe for a funding decision.
Why D is wrong: Tempting as a quick fix, but rerunning an unchanged prompt can produce agreement on the wrong figure. Consistency between two generated statements does not prove that either matches the tracker.