http://programmer.ie/tags/verifiability/ Recent content in Verifiability on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming Hugo en-us Sat, 29 Aug 2026 23:20:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/hallucination-from-first-principles/03-chapter/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 23:20:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/hallucination-from-first-principles/03-chapter/ <p>Chapter 2 gave us a rule for talking about hallucination precisely:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Relative to what reference did the output fail?</strong></p></blockquote> <p>That question immediately creates another one.</p> <p>What counts as a reference strong enough to constrain the answer?</p> <p>Suppose a model says:</p> <blockquote> <p>Company A acquired Company B in 2024.</p></blockquote> <p>There are several different things we might mean when we ask whether this is acceptable:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>What exact proposition has been asserted? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Is that proposition true at the relevant time? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Do we possess evidence for it? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Does that evidence actually support this exact relationship? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Can we identify the source and passage that support it? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Where did that source come from? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Is the source sufficiently reliable and current for this claim? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Is the evidence package sufficient for the action we want to authorize? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Could the claim be verified by this system now? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Has the verification actually been performed? </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>Would the active policy allow the claim to be published or acted upon? </span></span></code></pre></div><p>Those questions are related.</p>