Context Is King: The Fastest Way to Reduce Hallucinations
Context Is King: The Fastest Way to Reduce Hallucinations
Context is the key to minimizing hallucinations in AI models. By providing explicit facts, naming uncertainties, and setting clear boundaries, the accuracy of AI models can be improved.
From the model's perspective, this is correct behavior.
From your perspective, it's made up.
If you want to understand the underlying model, read first: [Prompting is not Questioning](https://www.promptacore.com/en/blog/prompting-is-programming)
Context is Not an Extra, But a Necessity
Many treat context like an optional add-on:
"I'll give little information first, then it will ask."
That's a misconception.
LLMs don't ask.
They guess.
Every piece of information you don't provide explicitly increases:
the room for interpretation
the likelihood of errors
the amount of made-up details
More context doesn't mean "longer prompts."
More context means fewer assumptions.
The Most Common Mistake: Implicit Knowledge
Humans constantly work with implicit knowledge:
"That's obvious"
"That's common knowledge"
"We already discussed that"
For an AI, this knowledge doesn't exist.
It only knows:
what's in the prompt
and what's statistically probable
Everything else is fantasy.
A Simple Example
Bad prompt:
"Write an apology for the last outage."
Better prompt:
Context
System: Payment platform
Outage time: 12.03., 14:10–14:47
Cause: Configuration error after update
Affected: approximately 3% of users
Known facts: no data lost
Unknown: exact cause of the error
Providing just this information drastically reduces hallucinations.
Context is Not Just Information, But Also Boundary
Good context not only says what is known,
but also what is not known.
This is crucial.
Example:
"The exact cause is still unclear."
"Please don't invent measures that aren't confirmed."
This sets clear boundaries.
And boundaries are extremely helpful for language models.
The Fastest Context Check
Before sending a prompt, ask yourself three questions:
1. What facts do I know for sure?
2. What things should the AI never make up?
3. What assumptions would a human automatically make?
Everything that comes to mind in question 3 belongs explicitly in the prompt.
The Most Important Sentence Against Hallucinations
There's a sentence that reduces hallucinations more than any technique:
"If a piece of information is not in the context, say explicitly: I don't know."
This sentence takes away the model's need to guess.
Why this works so well is explained here in detail:
Why AI Only Gets Better When It's Allowed to Say "I Don't Know."
Context Beats Model Choice
Many try to solve hallucinations by:
changing the model
using a larger model
hoping for new features
In practice, better context often yields more than a better model.
Not because the model becomes more intelligent.
But because you program it better.
Why Context Becomes Critical in Repetition
A one-time prompt can still be improvised.
But for recurring tasks, context becomes a risk:
important details get forgotten
formulations vary
assumptions creep in
That's why context is the first candidate for standardization.
Why this only works with templates in the long run is explained here:
When a Prompt Library Really Pays Off (coming soon).
