Major research into ‘hallucinating’ generative models advances reliability of artificial intelligence

Researchers from the University of Oxford have made a significant advance towards ensuring that information produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI) is robust and reliable. In a new study published today in Nature, they demonstrate a novel method to detect when a Large Language Model (LLM) is likely to ‘hallucinate’ (i.e. invent facts that sound plausible but are imaginary). This advance could open up new ways to deploy LLMs in situations where ‘careless errors’ are costly such as legal or medical question-answering.