{"slug": "models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training", "title": "Models Produce Hallucinations Because of Probabilistic Training", "summary": "Large language models produce hallucinations because they are trained as probabilistic next-word predictors on mixed data, according to a July 3, 2026 explainer from TugaTech. OpenAI research from September 2025 adds that accuracy-based evaluations reward confident guessing over honest uncertainty, making hallucinations a structural property of current training and grading.", "body_md": "Large language models produce **hallucinations**, confident but factually wrong statements, because they are trained as probabilistic next-word predictors on data that mixes reliable sources with fiction and repeated misinformation, according to a July 3, 2026 explainer from Portuguese tech outlet TugaTech. OpenAI's own research (Kalai, Nachum, Vempala and Zhang, **September 2025**) adds a sharper mechanism: hallucinations persist largely because standard accuracy-based evaluations reward confident guessing over honest uncertainty, so models learn to guess rather than say `I don't know`. For practitioners, the takeaway is operational: hallucinations are a structural property of current training and grading, not a bug to patch, requiring explicit verification, calibration, and fallback design rather than hoping bigger models will resolve it on their own.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training", "canonical_source": "https://letsdatascience.com/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-train-3bcd67a0", "published_at": "2026-07-03 17:48:13+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-03 21:09:29.657214+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["large-language-models", "ai-research", "ai-safety"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "TugaTech", "Kalai", "Nachum", "Vempala", "Zhang"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/models-produce-hallucinations-because-of-probabilistic-training.jsonld"}}