{
  "slug": "how-do-i-stop-ai-from-hallucinating",
  "question": "How do I stop ChatGPT and other AI from making things up?",
  "topic": "trust",
  "topic_name": "Trust and Hallucinations",
  "short_answer": "You can't fully stop it, because chatbots are trained to predict likely text and are often rewarded for guessing instead of saying 'I don't know.' You can sharply cut the risk by asking for sources, telling it to say when it's unsure, and checking specific facts yourself.",
  "explanation": [
    {
      "heading": "Why it happens",
      "text": "OpenAI defines hallucinations as plausible but false statements. Its research argues models hallucinate partly because standard training and evaluation reward guessing over admitting uncertainty, and because rare, arbitrary facts (like a specific person's birthday) can't be learned from patterns."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What works in practice",
      "text": "Ask the AI to cite where each claim comes from, then open the links. Tell it explicitly that 'I don't know' is an acceptable answer. Use search or research modes for factual questions, and be most careful with names, dates, numbers, quotes and citations."
    },
    {
      "heading": "When to double-check",
      "text": "Always verify before you rely on an answer for money, health, legal or published work. OpenAI says newer models hallucinate less, but that it still happens."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "OpenAI, Why language models hallucinate (Sep 2025)",
      "url": "https://openai.com/index/why-language-models-hallucinate/"
    }
  ],
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "url": "https://aiplainly.ai/answers/how-do-i-stop-ai-from-hallucinating.html",
  "license": "Free to quote and cite with attribution and a link to the url.",
  "sponsor": null
}