We’ve all been there: An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot delivers us a super-confident, totally polished answer, and we find out later that it made the whole thing up. Maybe it quoted a study that doesn’t exist. Maybe it twisted someone’s words. Whatever the case, the result is the same: It sounds right, but it’s dead wrong. People are calling these slip-ups “AI hallucinations.” It’s a term that’s gained traction now that AI is everywhere. But does “hallucination” really capture what’s happening? Or is it something that, if a person did it, we’d likely call lying?

At first, calling it a “hallucination” makes it seem like the AI just had a weird moment. Oops, no harm done. But what if that made-up information shows up in a doctor’s advice? Or a school paper? Or a legal document? Now it’s not just a harmless glitch; it’s a real problem. The issue isn’t just that it’s wrong. It’s that it sounds right. And most people don’t think twice before trusting it.

Technically, no. AI doesn’t think or feel, and it doesn’t plan to trick anyone. It doesn’t know what’s true or false, so by the usual definition, it can’t lie. But here’s where it gets messy: It still spits out wrong answers with total

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