AI and spotting when AI makes stuff up

AI sometimes makes up facts that sound real — check important things with a grown-up or a book.

Some examples

• If AI says a wild fact about animals, check a kids' encyclopedia.
• If AI gives a date, check it — AI can mix up years.
• If AI names a person, ask a grown-up if that person is real.

Try it!

Ask AI a question you already know the answer to. See if it gets it right!

How AI makes things up — and how to catch it

AI chatbots are very good at sounding confident. They use words in a smooth, sure-sounding way even when the information they give you is completely wrong. This is called a hallucination — AI invents facts that sound real because they fit the pattern of the words around them, not because they are true. AI has made up book titles, named scientists who do not exist, given wrong dates for real events, and described places it got completely backward. The tricky part is that AI does not know when it is hallucinating — it cannot tell the difference between something real and something invented. That is why you are the fact-checker. For any important fact, the rule is: check it somewhere else. Use an encyclopedia, a trusted website, or ask an adult. Good sources include National Geographic Kids, Britannica, or your school library's databases. If AI gives you a surprising fact — something you did not know before — that is exactly the kind of thing to check. Surprising facts from AI are often wrong.

• Always check surprising AI facts in a second source before using them
• Good checks: encyclopedia, library website, trusted adult
• AI does not know when it is wrong — you have to catch it
• If AI names a person or book you have never heard of, search for that name separately