Hallucination

Definition

Generated content that is unsupported, fabricated, or inconsistent with the relevant evidence.

Practical test

Is any generated statement fabricated, unsupported, or inconsistent with the evidence relevant to this task?

Example

Inventing a customer statistic is a hallucination; confidently repeating a stale but once-true statistic is also unsafe even if not fabricated.

What to record

For hallucination to be operational rather than a reassuring label, record the unsupported claim, expected evidence, failure type, detection method, and correction. If those facts cannot be observed or tested, do not treat the term itself as evidence that the workflow is safe.