Hallucination (AI)

AI hallucination in software development occurs when a language model produces code that references non-existent APIs, invents function signatures, fabricates library methods, or generates logic that looks correct but fails in subtle ways. This is especially dangerous in vibecoding because the output looks plausible to non-technical founders. A hallucinated API call won't throw a syntax error — it will compile fine and fail silently or catastrophically at runtime. Common hallucination patterns include outdated library syntax, made-up configuration options, and security implementations that look right but don't actually protect anything.