Hallucination
Also called: AI hallucination, AI error
Definition
In AI, a hallucination is a false or made-up statement that a language model produces as if it were true. The model generates the most plausible text, and plausible isn't always accurate, especially when the available information is scarce or contradictory.
For a brand, the most frequent hallucinations are about prices, features, integrations, target audience or history. They often come from old information, competitors' pages or a lack of clear sources about the brand itself.
Example
An assistant claims a piece of software “has no mobile app” when the app has existed for two years. The information comes from an old comparison that nobody updated.
What it means for your AI visibility
A hallucination about your brand can cost you sales without you knowing. The only way to spot it is to ask the AIs about you regularly, then fix the sources that feed it.
In i am rankAlertsGet notified when what AI says about your brand changes.Related terms
- LLMAn LLM is an AI model trained on huge volumes of text to understand and produce language. It is the engine behind ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- Knowledge cutoffThe knowledge cutoff marks the end of a model's training data. Whatever happened after it escapes the model, unless it searches the web.
- GroundingGrounding means basing an AI's answer on verifiable sources rather than on its memory alone.
- SentimentSentiment describes the way an AI talks about your brand: positively, neutrally or negatively, and with what arguments.
- LLMOLLMO is the optimization of a brand and its content for large language models, the ones that power ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
Updated on · All glossary terms