By Rick Murphy
Artificial Intelligence has picked up a reputation problem, and part of that problem comes from one overused word that now gets thrown around far too easily: “hallucination.” Any time AI produces a paragraph, number, suggestion, or conclusion that someone does not like, does not expect, or does not immediately understand, the easy response is to say the machine hallucinated. Sometimes that may be true, because AI can be wrong. It can misunderstand a request, lean on weak information, or produce an answer that needs correction. But in day-to-day business use, especially inside small market radio stations, I believe many of these so-called hallucinations are false objections.
We have seen false objections before. Every time a new process comes into a radio station, someone finds a reason to resist it. Automation was going to ruin radio, digital editing was going to confuse staff, and computerized traffic systems were too complicated. Now AI has walked into the room, and people are guarding the old fort again. Employees and managers can become territorial when a new tool challenges their habits or authority. When AI produces something that challenges the way things have always been done, dismissal is the easiest response. “The AI hallucinated” can stop a meeting cold, but it should not be allowed to stop the thinking.
When someone says AI hallucinated, ask them to point to the exact problem. Show the prompt, the answer, and the source material. Show the sentence, number, claim, or conclusion that is supposedly wrong, then show what proves it wrong. Once that happens, the conversation moves away from opinion and toward evidence. Many AI errors are traceable, and they often come from places much closer to home. Sometimes the source material is bad. If the spreadsheet is outdated or the meeting notes are incomplete, AI simply reflects that confusion back. That is not a hallucination; sometimes it is a mirror, providing a great way to find errors in your supporting material.
Sometimes the prompt is the problem. AI is powerful, but it cannot know station history, client relationships, or pricing policies unless provided. When a person gives AI a vague instruction and receives an imperfect answer, the first question should be, “Did I ask the question clearly enough?” There is also a third possibility: sometimes the human reviewer brings an assumption to the table and mistakes it for fact. AI may find a pattern or conclusion the reviewer did not expect, and rather than investigate, the reviewer simply declares it wrong. Surprise is not proof of error, and disagreement is not proof of hallucination.
A good manager must ask harder questions: Did I cause this problem? Did I give the AI enough information or the right source material? In business, we already know how to handle imperfect work from people. If a new salesperson brings a report with questionable information, we do not conclude they are useless. We check notes, review account history, correct mistakes, and coach the process. AI should be handled with the same discipline. Treat the first answer as a draft from a smart assistant, then check, trace, correct, and improve instructions for the next round.
Modern AI tools are becoming better at showing sources grounded in company documents or approved reference material. When an AI answer traces back to a source, it shouldn’t be automatically dismissed as a hallucination. The danger of using “hallucination” as a catch-all complaint is that it becomes a shield against change. It lets people avoid learning a new process and protects old habits. Modern AI is not perfect, but treating every AI mistake as proof the technology cannot be trusted is fear wearing a necktie.
The next time someone claims an AI hallucinated, ask for the exact error, the source proving it wrong, and the prompt that created it. If they can provide those, you found a real problem to fix. If they cannot, you are looking at a false objection.
Rick L. Murphy owns Murphy Broadcasting, with nine Arizona radio stations. He has built or operated 32 stations. An inventor, author, pilot, former whitewater rafting guide, and founder of an international sales software company, Rick worked in Hollywood for Merv Griffin and Sammy Davis Jr. He was later sent to Romania through the Citizens Democracy Corps, founded by President George H. W. Bush and Henry Kissinger, to help privatize radio after the fall of the Communist Iron Curtain.