07Hallucinations

Odd word, simple phenomenon: AI sometimes invents things and delivers them with total confidence. A link that doesn't exist. A function that was never written. A price pulled out of the air.

It isn't broken and it isn't malicious. Remember how it works: its job is to continue text plausibly. Usually plausible matches true. Sometimes it doesn't.

Three rules cover nearly all of it.

Check facts that are easy to check. Prices, versions, links, names. Open it and look - ten seconds.

Code is checked by running it. Don't argue with it about whether the code works. Run it. If it doesn't, paste the whole error back and it will fix it.

The fresher the topic, the closer you look. The model was trained up to some date. About something released yesterday it can confidently talk nonsense. Search helps here - most AIs have it, just ask it to look.

And don't be shy about saying "that's not true, check it". It won't take offence and it usually corrects itself.