Basics
Hallucination
When an AI states something false with total confidence.
A hallucination is when an AI makes something up and presents it as fact. Because these models are built to produce plausible-sounding text, they can invent names, dates, quotes, or sources that simply do not exist, and they do it without any signal that they are unsure. This is why it is wise to double-check anything important an AI tells you.
For example
An AI might confidently cite a court case or a research paper that was never actually written.
Related
Large language modelA program that learned to use language by reading enormous amounts of text.TokenThe small chunk of text an AI reads and writes, often part of a word.Context windowHow much text an AI can keep in mind at one time.ParametersThe internal dials a model adjusts while learning, numbering in the billions.