H · Hallucination · hybrid retrieval

Hallucination

A plausible answer that is not supported by the data. Mitigable with attribution.

In one sentence

A hallucination is an answer generated by a language model that sounds confident and reasonable but is not grounded in the retrieved sources or in verifiable fact.

When it matters

Always, but especially when the answer leads to a regulatory action (medical, safety, financial).

A real-world example

An ungrounded model invents "press F12 to reset" for a brand that has no F12 button. helpcode KB refuses to answer when no citation is found, and surfaces the closest documented procedure instead.

Curated by helpcode research team · Last reviewed 2026-05-22