# Ungrounded internal consistency can produce fluent but factually unsupported AI outputs. > Source: > Published: 2026-08-25 15:40:03+00:00 ## The Short Version Fluent, internally consistent generation can produce hallucinations when it is not adequately constrained by external evidence. Academic reviews and empirical studies support this as one recognized failure pathway, particularly when learned linguistic priors override retrieved, factual, or perceptual information. It is not the only cause of AI hallucinations.