Hallucination
A hallucination is when an AI states something false or invented — a fake statistic, quote, or source — in the same confident tone as real fact.
Definition
A hallucination is a fluent, confident answer that simply isn't true — an invented statistic, a made-up quote, or a citation to a study that does not exist. The model is not lying; it predicts text that sounds plausible, and now and then the plausible-sounding thing is wrong. For example, ask for a book on a niche topic and it may cheerfully recommend a title and author that were never published.
Why it matters
Hallucinations are the main reason you cannot blindly trust an AI answer for anything that matters — a medical dose, a legal deadline, a figure in a report. Grounding and verified citations are the practical defense: when every claim has to quote a real source, an invented one has nowhere to hide. AskClear's Facts mode checks each quote against your sources and marks anything it cannot find as unverified, so fabrications surface instead of slipping through.