UseAI glossary
Hallucination
When an AI confidently asserts something false. It doesn't "lie": it generates the most plausible text, which isn't always the most truthful.
In other words
The self-assured friend who invents the details he's forgotten, without realising it.
Alyriaz articles that mention it
- An AI gives you a source? How to verify it
Assistants sometimes cite studies or links that do not exist, or that say something else. Five simple checks before believing them.
- How does an AI transcribe speech?
Speech recognition turns a continuous signal into words. We explain the mechanism, why certain situations remain difficult, and how to get better results.
- AI and the justice system: what is already happening in the courts
AI is entering the courtroom through several doors at once: law firms, courts, and self-represented litigants. Here's a rundown of what works, what has already gone wrong, and the questions of principle it raises.
- Can an AI be mistaken in good faith?
Error, lie, hallucination: our moral vocabulary presupposes an intention that machines do not possess. We explore what this absence changes in how we should talk about their failures, and why words matter here.
- Why an AI can't say "I don't know"
An AI states something false with exactly the same tone as when it tells the truth. We explain why uncertainty is structurally difficult for these systems to express, what labs are trying to do about it, and what that means for your trust.
- Why AIs hallucinate (and why they probably never will stop)
OpenAI announces a 65% reduction in hallucinations on GPT-5. Anthropic touts Claude's factual accuracy. And yet, all regular users keep seeing their AI make things up. Why? Because hallucinations are not a minor flaw. They are at the very core of how the technology works. An accessible, no-holds-barred explanation.