How to Reduce AI Hallucinations

Narrow the evidence boundary Tell the model which sources it may use and require it to distinguish supplied evidence from general knowledge. For current facts, connect a retrieval tool and retain source metadata.

Permit uncertainty Explicitly allow an unknown answer. Require missing evidence, conflicts, and assumptions to be surfaced instead of silently resolved.

Ask for claim-level support For high-stakes work, require citations near claims and verify that each citation actually supports the statement. A plausible URL is not evidence.

Build a review loop Use deterministic checks for dates, calculations, identifiers, and schema. Sample outputs manually and maintain a failure set so later prompt revisions do not reintroduce known errors.