Althea: Human-AI Collaboration for Fact-Checking and Critical Reasoning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Churina, Svetlana, Jaidka, Kokil, Barik, Anab Maulana, Aneja, Harshit, Yang, Cai, Hsu, Wynne, Lee, Mong Li
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Churina, Svetlana
Jaidka, Kokil
Barik, Anab Maulana
Aneja, Harshit
Yang, Cai
Hsu, Wynne
Lee, Mong Li
author_facet Churina, Svetlana
Jaidka, Kokil
Barik, Anab Maulana
Aneja, Harshit
Yang, Cai
Hsu, Wynne
Lee, Mong Li
contents The web's information ecosystem demands fact-checking systems that are both scalable and epistemically trustworthy. Automated approaches offer efficiency but often lack transparency, while human verification remains slow and inconsistent. We introduce Althea, a retrieval-augmented system that integrates question generation, evidence retrieval, and structured reasoning to support user-driven evaluation of online claims. On the AVeriTeC benchmark, Althea achieves a Macro-F1 of 0.44, outperforming standard verification pipelines and improving discrimination between supported and refuted claims. We further evaluate Althea through a controlled user study and a longitudinal survey experiment (N=963), comparing three interaction modes that vary in the degree of scaffolding: an Exploratory mode with guided reasoning, a Summary mode providing synthesized verdicts, and a Self-search mode that offers procedural guidance without algorithmic intervention. Results show that guided interaction produces the strongest immediate gains in accuracy and confidence, while self-directed search yields the most persistent improvements over time. This pattern suggests that performance gains are not driven solely by effort or exposure, but by how cognitive work is structured and internalized. Participants consistently described Althea as transparent and supportive of reflective reasoning, emphasizing its ability to organize evidence and clarify competing claims. By integrating retrieval, interaction, and pedagogical scaffolding, Althea demonstrates how human--AI interaction can move beyond automated verdicts toward durable improvements in reasoning. These findings advance the design of trustworthy, human-centered fact-checking systems that balance guidance with epistemic autonomy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_11161
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Althea: Human-AI Collaboration for Fact-Checking and Critical Reasoning
Churina, Svetlana
Jaidka, Kokil
Barik, Anab Maulana
Aneja, Harshit
Yang, Cai
Hsu, Wynne
Lee, Mong Li
Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
The web's information ecosystem demands fact-checking systems that are both scalable and epistemically trustworthy. Automated approaches offer efficiency but often lack transparency, while human verification remains slow and inconsistent. We introduce Althea, a retrieval-augmented system that integrates question generation, evidence retrieval, and structured reasoning to support user-driven evaluation of online claims. On the AVeriTeC benchmark, Althea achieves a Macro-F1 of 0.44, outperforming standard verification pipelines and improving discrimination between supported and refuted claims. We further evaluate Althea through a controlled user study and a longitudinal survey experiment (N=963), comparing three interaction modes that vary in the degree of scaffolding: an Exploratory mode with guided reasoning, a Summary mode providing synthesized verdicts, and a Self-search mode that offers procedural guidance without algorithmic intervention. Results show that guided interaction produces the strongest immediate gains in accuracy and confidence, while self-directed search yields the most persistent improvements over time. This pattern suggests that performance gains are not driven solely by effort or exposure, but by how cognitive work is structured and internalized. Participants consistently described Althea as transparent and supportive of reflective reasoning, emphasizing its ability to organize evidence and clarify competing claims. By integrating retrieval, interaction, and pedagogical scaffolding, Althea demonstrates how human--AI interaction can move beyond automated verdicts toward durable improvements in reasoning. These findings advance the design of trustworthy, human-centered fact-checking systems that balance guidance with epistemic autonomy.
title Althea: Human-AI Collaboration for Fact-Checking and Critical Reasoning
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11161