Glossary
Hallucination – what does it mean?
Definition
Hallucination: Hallucination is when an AI confidently gives an answer that is not in its sources.
The language model writes the most probable continuation; if it has nothing to rely on, it can make up a plausible but false answer.
How it works
For every word, the language model continues with whatever seems most probable based on the text so far. If there is data behind it, it rephrases that data. If there is none, its tone remains just as confident.
In such cases it fills the missing knowledge from probability, and a plausible yet false answer is produced. There are two safeguards: the assistant answers only from available sources, and if the source gives no support, it hands the question over to a colleague.
An example at a company
In the online store, a customer asks when the selected product will arrive. An assistant working without sources replies: “We will ship it tomorrow”, even though the stock data says nothing about this.
An assistant that relies on the knowledge base indicates that it has no data on this, asks for the customer’s contact details and hands the question over to a colleague.
What this means for business leaders
The phenomenon cannot be ruled out completely, so the question is what the provider does about it. Ask: does it answer from sources, does it hand over when information is missing, and does it signal uncertainty?
If these are missing, the customer gets a confident yet wrong answer, and the complaint falls on your company. The risk is refunds and the loss of customer trust.
How we do it
The assistant answers from your company’s own knowledge base: based on the website, product pages, price list and documents. The source is shown next to the answer. What there is no content for, it does not make up: it asks for the contact details and hands the question over to a colleague.
Before go-live we check the answers with ten test questions. You can read about how it works on the How it works page.
What should you do now?
Do you have a question about your own website or online store? Request a demo or see our pricing.