8bit.tr Journal
Hallucination Mitigation Systems: Engineering for Factuality
A systems-level approach to reducing hallucinations using retrieval, verification, and structured generation.
Hallucinations Are a System Problem
LLMs optimize fluency, not truth. Without grounding, they will fill gaps with plausible text.
The most reliable mitigation comes from system design, not just prompting tricks.
Retrieval and Source Grounding
RAG reduces hallucinations by injecting verified context into the prompt.
Require citations and show sources to users so they can validate answers.
Verification Layers
Add a second-pass verifier model or rule-based checker for high-stakes claims.
Cross-check answers against trusted sources before displaying them.
Structured Generation
Use schemas and constrained decoding to reduce free-form drift.
Structured outputs are easier to validate and harder to hallucinate.
Monitoring in Production
Track user corrections, dispute rates, and citation usage.
A spike in corrections is an early signal of hallucination regression.
Trust and UX Signals
Show source confidence and allow users to expand citations. When users can see the evidence, they are more likely to trust correct answers and flag incorrect ones.
Capture feedback in context. A quick 'this is wrong' action tied to the specific sentence gives you training signals that are far more useful than generic ratings.
Offer a lightweight correction flow that lets users suggest the right fact. These corrections are high value training data for future fixes.
Include a fallback response when sources are missing. A clear 'I do not know' is safer than a confident guess.
Summarize top correction themes monthly. This helps prioritize which sources or prompts need improvement.
Reward teams for reducing correction rates, not just increasing volume. Quality gains should be visible in metrics.
Use a simple confidence scale in the UI so users understand when answers are uncertain.
Make citation links copyable. Easy sharing helps users verify facts outside the product.
FAQ: Hallucination Mitigation
Can hallucinations be eliminated? Not entirely, but they can be reduced to acceptable levels for many tasks.
Is RAG enough? It helps, but verification and constraints are still needed for critical domains.
What is the fastest improvement? Require citations and show sources by default.
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