SynaBot

How do I stop AI from making things up?

Give it the facts to work from, tell it to say "I don't know" when it does not, and always spot-check anything about names, dates, quotes, or numbers.

Mark Barclay
Answer curated and reviewed byMark Barclay

Key takeaways

  • Give it the facts to work from, tell it to say "I don't know" when it does not, and always spot-check anything about names, dates, quotes, or numbers.

Hallucinations happen when the model is asked to produce something confident about something it does not actually know. Three fixes that work:

  1. Ground it. Paste the source doc into the prompt or give the assistant a knowledge base to search.
  2. Give it permission to fail. Add "If you are not sure, say so — do not guess."
  3. Ask for sources. Any factual claim should come with a link or a quote you can verify.