What is Hallucination?
A hallucination is an answer an AI gives confidently, but that is made up or wrong.
AI keeps guessing the most likely continuation. That lets it tell you, with full confidence, something that is simply not true: a made-up source, a wrong number, a name that does not exist. That is a hallucination. It is not lying, because the program does not even know it is wrong. It just always sounds equally sure.
This is the main reason to always check AI answers, especially names, numbers, sources and facts. A confident tone says nothing about whether it is right.
Read the full lesson: Waarom verzint AI soms dingen? →
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Last reviewed: 19 June 2026.