AI drafts typically require significant editing for voice, style, and structure. The editing process introduces a specific risk: changes made for stylistic reasons can inadvertently alter the meaning of factual claims. "Approximately 50%" edited to "about half" is fine; "increased by 50%" edited to "doubled" introduces a mathematical error. Editors must distinguish between stylistic edits and substantive edits throughout the process.
The Fact-Preservation Editing Protocol
Before editing: highlight all specific numbers, dates, names, and causal claims in the AI draft. These are your 'protected' elements. During editing: edit everything around the protected elements freely. When editing a sentence containing a protected element, verify that the edit does not alter the element's meaning. After editing: compare all protected elements in the edited draft against the original AI output. Any that have changed require re-verification against the source. This takes an additional 5 minutes but catches most fact-corruption during editing.