Chain of Verification
Reduce hallucination by drafting an answer, generating independent verification questions, answering them in isolation, and revising.
Problem
When the same model is then asked to check its own draft within the same conversation, it sees the draft text in its context window. Its follow-up answers are pulled towards agreeing with what was just written, so the same wrong claims get reaffirmed instead of caught. Simply telling the model 'now check this for errors' does not work, because the draft itself biases the verifier, and the hallucinations slip through into the final output.
Solution
Four-step pipeline. Draft: produce initial answer. Plan: generate verification questions covering claims in the draft. Execute: answer each question in isolation, without seeing the original draft. Revise: rewrite the draft using the verification answers.
When to use
- The model hallucinates claims when it self-verifies in the same context as the draft.
- Verification questions can be answered in isolation without seeing the draft.
- A revise step can integrate the verification answers back into the final output.
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