IntegrAuth Academy
Identity, security and practical AI — free, from zero. Byte-sized lessons, real diagrams, hands-on labs, zero fluff. Two programs, each with its own exam and certificate.
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Get real answers from your files
Priya uploads 6 months of store sales. She asks which store did better. The answer sounds sure, with 6 numbers. Three are wrong, and nothing says which. Your goal: make the numbers prove themselves.
🧪 Interactive lab — enable JavaScript to play with this one.
- The AI reads a converted copy of your file. Parts can get lost.
- No code means the numbers were written, not calculated.
- Code makes the math exact, but check the method too.
- Ask for exact quotes with page numbers.
- Compare the row count, and check 2 numbers yourself.
- Files hide comments, old edits and hidden sheets. Remove them before you upload.
Written or calculated?
An AI writes by guessing what comes next. So a total it adds up "in its head" only looks right. Many assistants can run code instead. The AI writes a small program. A sealed-off computer runs it on your real file. This is called code execution. You then see a code block or an "analysis" panel.
Ask so you can check
- Ask for quotes. "Quote the exact sentence and give the page number."
- Allow "not there." "If it doesn't mention late fees, say so." Otherwise it may guess.
- Point at the part. "In section 4, how can the contract end?"
Check the numbers
Ask to see the code. Compare the row count with your file. Your file has 1,240 rows, but the answer says 1,000? Then rows were cut. Next, check 2 numbers yourself. In a spreadsheet app like Excel or Google Sheets, select some cells to see their sum.
Files hold more than you see. Find it below.
🧪 Interactive lab — enable JavaScript to play with this one.
Go deeper: what the AI gets from a file
An AI model takes in text. Some models also take images or sound. It can't open a PDF or a spreadsheet the way your computer does. So the app converts your file first.
- Digital files like a Word file, slides or a PDF made on a computer have text inside. The app pulls it out. For PDFs, some apps also send a picture of each page.
- Scans and photos are only a picture of text. The app reads the letters off the image. This is called OCR.
- Spreadsheets and CSV files are split into rows and columns. A CSV file is a table saved as plain text.
Tables in PDFs get mixed up. Handwriting, faint scans and charts can drop out. Some apps send only the text of a Word file, or only the first rows of a big sheet. When an answer looks wrong, suspect the conversion first.
Go deeper: long files
An AI can hold only so much text at once. This limit is its context window. Details in the middle are easier to miss. Is a file too big? Then the app searches it. It sends the AI only the parts that look useful. So "sum up this 300-page report" may really mean "sum up the parts the search picked." For anything important, ask where each point came from.
Go deeper: code that does the wrong sum
The code can add the wrong column. It can count a "Total" row as data. It can skip numbers stored as text. It can read 03/04 as March 4 when you meant April 3.
Priya asks for her team's expense total. The code says ₹48,960. Finance says ₹24,480, exactly half. She reads the code and sees the problem. It also added the file's own "Total" row. She drops that row, and the numbers match.
Messy data confuses people and AI. Watch for blank rows, merged headers and many tables on 1 sheet. Spreadsheet apps can also change data when they open a file. A postal code can lose its first zero. Clean the data first, or tell the AI what is in it.
Go deeper: ask for a formula
Often the best thing to ask for is a formula. Ask: "Write a Google Sheets formula that totals column C where column B says North." You get something like =SUMIFS(C:C, B:B, "North"). Your spreadsheet does the math. You can see what it adds. It updates when the data changes. Tell the AI which app you use, because functions differ between apps. Ask it to explain each part.
Check charts too: the right column, labels and units.
Go deeper: before you upload
Uploading a file sends it to the AI company, just like pasting its text. So the rules for AI at work apply. Copy only the columns you need into a new file. Or run your office app's checker. Microsoft Office calls it the Document Inspector. Many phone photos also store the place where they were taken. If you link an assistant to a cloud drive (online file storage), it can reach far more than 1 file.
Upload a small CSV table with a "Total" row to any AI assistant. Ask for the total. Then ask again with "run code and show it." Compare both with the sum in your own spreadsheet.