Fluent language makes a hallucinatory chatbot just as credible as a curt, flawless one

Most people are by now quite familiar with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other chatbots: Every day, people ask millions of questions and receive neatly formulated answers in return. Yet these language models still tend to run wild with so-called "hallucinations": unreliable, dubious answers that are presented with great certainty as the truth.