Circular sourcing
Circular sourcing is when AI answers cite pages that were themselves written from AI answers, so one mistake can feed on itself.
Circular sourcing is when an AI answer cites a page that was itself written from AI answers. The platform reads the page, trusts it, and repeats what it says. Someone writes a new page from that answer. The circle closes.
The danger is how a single mistake spreads. A wrong claim that appears once can come back from several pages, each citing the last, until it looks like something everybody agrees on.
How it happens
More and more web pages are written with the help of AI. Some are checked carefully. Many aren't. When an AI-written article picks up an error from an AI answer, and an AI platform later reads that article, the error comes back with a citation attached.
For example, an AI answer says by mistake that Fernhill Coffee only delivers within London. A comparison site uses an AI tool to write its "best coffee subscriptions" roundup, and the claim ends up in it. Two other roundups copy from that one. Now when a platform searches for Fernhill's delivery areas, it finds three pages that agree, and repeats the claim with more confidence than before.
How to break the circle
Find the pages behind the wrong claim, starting with the one the others copied, and ask for corrections. Make the right fact easy to find on your own site, stated plainly. When the claim comes from the platform itself, with no page behind it, report it to the platform.
Check statistics before you repeat them, too. A figure that's widely quoted isn't always one that was ever measured.
In AnswerOrbit
Claims checks what the answers say about you against your facts. Inaccuracy drivers shows the pages behind each wrong claim, or the platform's own knowledge when no page was used. From a claim, Copy evidence gives you what to send to whoever runs the page.