Spotting AI hallucinations: how to check an AI answer
BudgetAI.nl editorial team · 2026-10-28 · 5 min
An AI hallucination is an answer in which AI invents a source, number or name that sounds plausible but isn't true. You spot them by verifying every important fact before you use it.
Below: how hallucinations arise, five checking steps and a fun way to practise with your team.
What exactly is an AI hallucination?
AI assistants such as Copilot, Claude and ChatGPT write text that sounds logical and confident. Sometimes they fill gaps with information that doesn't exist: a report that was never written, a percentage based on nothing or a name that's wrong. That's a hallucination.
The tricky part is that such an answer looks just as convincing as a correct one.
Where do hallucinations often appear?
- Sources and references: titles, links and authors
- Numbers: percentages, amounts and dates
- Names of people, organisations and products
- Quotes someone supposedly said
- Details about rules and laws
How do you check an AI answer in five steps?
- Highlight every fact in the answer: names, numbers, sources and dates.
- Ask the AI assistant where each fact comes from.
- Check the source yourself: does it exist and does it really say that?
- Compare with what you know or with a reliable colleague.
- Only use what you could verify and delete the rest.
Want your team to really learn this? Practise with our escape game.
How do you practise spotting hallucinations as a team?
Reading about hallucinations helps, but discovering them yourself sticks better. In the escape game Fact or Fable teams get rounds of AI answers with hidden errors. Whoever spots the error gets the code for the next round.
The game takes 1.5 to 2 hours, suits 6 to 60 people and costs €349 for the complete kit. Someone from your own team runs it using the game master guide.
Prefer to brief your team first? The Working Safely with AI presentation at €49 also covers checking sources.
Which agreements help your team?
- Never use an AI-provided source without opening it yourself.
- Always have a human review important texts.
- Don't put confidential company data into an AI tool without an agreement.
See all products on the prices page.
Let your team learn to spot AI errors through play. Request Fact or Fable.