Understanding and Preventing LLM Hallucinations
The Law of Knowledge Overshadowing reveals why AI models fabricate facts
This research introduces the knowledge overshadowing concept to explain why LLMs hallucinate despite high-quality training data.
- Identifies how dominant knowledge can obscure less prominent knowledge during generation
- Provides a framework to quantify and predict when hallucinations occur
- Develops strategies to prevent hallucinations by addressing overshadowing mechanisms
For security professionals, this work offers crucial insights into making LLMs more reliable by addressing a fundamental cause of misinformation, rather than just treating symptoms.