Hallucination
A confident statement from an AI system that is false or not supported by its sources.
What it means
A hallucination is an answer that sounds certain but is wrong or unsupported. In search tools, it often shows up as an invented detail, a number attached to the wrong source, or a link that does not contain the claim. Hallucinations are hard to spot because the tone of an answer stays the same whether the facts are right or wrong.
The 2025 Tow Center study found that AI search tools gave wrong answers to more than 60 percent of queries and rarely signaled uncertainty. Reduce the risk with three habits. Ask a question you already know, open each source you plan to use, and prefer tools that say 'not found' over guessing. A tool that never refuses should make you more cautious, not less. Related terms are grounding and citation.
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https://bestaisearchengine.com/glossary/hallucination/