AI dictionary for work
Hallucination
When AI invents something that sounds true.
What it means
A hallucination is a confident, fluent answer that is simply wrong — a made-up statistic, a fake citation, a misremembered date. It happens because the model predicts plausible text, and plausible is not the same as true.
Why it matters at work
Wrong answers arrive in the same smooth, certain tone as right ones, so tone is no evidence. Anything the AI recalled on its own — names, numbers, laws, quotes — needs checking before it leaves your desk.
Beginner mistake
Forwarding an AI answer because it "sounded authoritative". Especially dangerous with numbers, legal claims, and citations.
Example prompt
For each claim in your answer, quote the exact sentence from the document I pasted that supports it. If you cannot, mark the claim as unverified.
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Last updated 2026-06-16 · Reviewed for current AI tools