If you’ve received a Read
A Read is a five-to-eight-page report on what AI answer engines say about one company or project during a live dispute. It records the answers, the sources the engines cited and where the answers conflict with the public record. Reads are sent without charge, and only to the company they’re about.
1. Why did I receive one?
We choose situations where a recent ruling, decision or report is likely to have changed what the engines say. Each Read goes to the people at the company best placed to judge the answers against the public record. That’s usually the general counsel and the head of external affairs.
2. Who paid for it?
No one. Nobody commissioned the Read and we don’t charge for it. It’s unpaid research on your situation, and yours to keep.
3. What do you want from me?
If you find the Read useful, we’d like 30 minutes on a call with you. We’ll go through what each engine said about your company, the sources behind each answer and what the evidence does and doesn’t show. The call is free and needs no preparation. It doesn’t commit you to anything. If the Read isn’t useful, a one-line reply saying so stops any follow-up.
4. Will anyone else see it?
No. We don’t publish Reads or say who received one, and nothing you tell us about it leaves the firm, and we never use it for anyone else. If we were ever compelled by law to disclose it, we’d tell you first unless the law prevents it. We won’t publish anything that names your company or project without your written agreement.
5. Is this Read really from you?
Every Read is sent as a PDF from an @probativehq.com address, with a reference number on its first page. To check one, email the reference number to hello@probativehq.com. We never send a Read as a download link, and we’ll never ask you to sign in to anything.
6. I haven’t received one. Can I get one?
Yes. Write to hello@probativehq.com with the company or project and your part in it, and we’ll come back with a scope and a fixed price.
It won’t be a free Read. Those go out on our own selection and there’s no list to join. What you’d get is the same work aimed at your company, on your timing, with every capture behind every answer as well as the report. How engagements work has the detail.
One thing first. Don’t send us anything confidential until we’ve confirmed we’re free to act.
7. What happens to the Read after you send it?
We keep each Read and the captures behind it for 12 months from the day it’s sent, then delete them unless the law or a legal process requires us to keep them. If anyone tries to obtain them by subpoena or other legal process, we’ll tell you first unless the law prevents it. We don’t record calls. The Read’s questions are checked again until the date given in its cover email, and we send you anything that changes. A one-line reply stops that too.
8. What’s in a Read
Key judgments. Five at most, each with a likelihood term and a confidence level.
What the engines say. The answers by type of question, with the sentences a reader actually sees quoted in full.
Where the answers come from. Every source the engines cited, sorted by type. The sites cited most often come first.
What’s wrong in the record. Material that’s out of date, retracted, wrongly sourced or missing, item by item.
What would change it. The options for correcting sources and the correction channels the engines themselves offer.
Method and limits. The engines, the dates, the questions, how answers differed between runs and what the Read can’t show.
Would a walkthrough be useful? Reply to the email the Read came with. If you haven’t had one, write to hello@probativehq.com.