# Understanding hallucinations in large language models

> A concise English translation about why language models can produce confident but false answers.

- Author: Elzo Brito
- Language: en
- Published: 2023-09-15
- Canonical URL: https://elzobrito.com/en/blog/understanding-hallucinations-in-large-language-models/
- Translation: https://elzobrito.com/blog/entendendo-alucinacoes-em-grandes-modelos-de-linguagem/

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This is a curated English edition of a legacy Portuguese article originally published on 2023-09-15. It preserves the public argument and editorial intent while avoiding private details, operational state, or unsupported new claims.

## Core idea

The article explains hallucination as a predictable failure mode of systems trained to produce plausible language rather than guaranteed truth.

The operational lesson is simple and stubborn: use retrieval, evidence, tests, and review when factual accuracy matters. Confidence is not provenance.

## Editorial note

This translation was prepared during the governed migration of the legacy blog into the GitHub Pages hub. Technical references may age; when the topic involves law, public policy, infrastructure, or model behavior, treat the article as educational context and verify current sources before acting.

Portuguese source article: [/blog/entendendo-alucinacoes-em-grandes-modelos-de-linguagem/](/blog/entendendo-alucinacoes-em-grandes-modelos-de-linguagem/).