ClaimsDaniela Amodei

“We are very open about the fact that the models make things up sometimes.”

Daniela Amodei, Anthropic president, interviewed 2026 Daniela Amodei Says Curiosity Is Underrated (Stanford GSB)

Factual AI capabilities

Anthropic is open about the fact that its models sometimes make things up.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2026. True: Anthropic's public materials from that time (model cards, system cards, user-facing disclaimers in Claude, help-centre pages, research posts) openly say that its models can hallucinate, confabulate or produce false information. Mostly true: such statements exist but are mostly in technical documents, with only minor gaps. Mixed: the acknowledgments are present in some channels but missing or played down in prominent ones. Mostly false: acknowledgments are rare or buried, while Anthropic's main messaging presents the models as reliable. False: the evidence shows Anthropic denied or hid that its models make things up.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (4)

  1. E1 Why do AI models hallucinate? · Claude Academy Anthropic (Claude Academy) · 1 January 2026 Own record

    “But sometimes AIs still make things up. We call these errors hallucinations.”
  2. E2 Claude está fornecendo respostas incorretas ou enganosas. O que está acontecendo? | Anthropic Help Center Anthropic Help Center · 5 March 2026 Own record

    “Na tentativa de ser um assistente útil, Claude pode ocasionalmente produzir respostas que são incorretas ou enganosas.”
  3. E3 Reduce hallucinations Anthropic (Claude Developer Platform docs) · 21 October 2026 Own record

    “Even the most advanced language models, such as Claude, can sometimes generate text that is factually incorrect or inconsistent with the given context.”
  4. E4 Model Card and Evaluations for Claude Models - Anthropic Anthropic · 8 August 2026 Own record

    “Claude models still confabulate – getting facts wrong, hallucinating details, and filling in gaps in knowledge with fabrication.”

Reasoning

Anthropic's published materials from 2026 say openly, in several channels, that its models make things up. The user-facing Claude Academy tutorial says AIs "sometimes still make things up" and calls these hallucinations (E1). Two technical documents say the same: the developer docs say Claude can generate factually incorrect text (E3), and the model card says Claude models "still confabulate" and fill gaps with fabrication (E4). Because the claim is about what Anthropic itself publishes, these published materials are the direct record, and they cover both user-facing and technical channels, as the criteria for "true" require.

Cite this claim

Daniela Amodei, “Anthropic is open about the fact that its models sometimes make things up.” (said 2026). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_8af95caa8ce6, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_8af95caa8ce6

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Daniela Amodei, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Daniela Amodei

  1. Mostly true Factual 21 October 2026
    “In the lab, Claude designed new protein binders from scratch.”

    In laboratory work, Anthropic's Claude designed new protein binders from scratch.

  2. Mostly true Factual 21 October 2026
    “including open-source code much of the internet runs on, before attackers could exploit them.”

    Cyberdefenders directed Claude to find more than 33,000 critical and high-severity flaws in widely used software, including open-source code, before attackers could exploit them.

  3. Resolved true Factual 21 October 2026
    “They also showed that more than 6,000 women had come in for prenatal care, but only 1,762 had delivered with a healthcare worker present, a discrepancy that the team is investigating and addressing.”

    The dashboards showed more than 6,000 women came for prenatal care but only 1,762 delivered with a healthcare worker present.

  4. Resolved true Factual 21 October 2026
    “Those dashboards flagged a spike of 25,000 pneumonia cases, so the team can anticipate and plan for future surges.”

    Claude-built dashboards for an International Rescue Committee team in Burkina Faso flagged a spike of 25,000 pneumonia cases.

  5. Resolved true Factual 29 June 2026
    “Sometimes Claude is wrong.”

    Anthropic's Claude sometimes gives wrong answers.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.