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This is a rough, order-of-magnitude estimate based on:


* reported usage (e.g., ~18B messages/week for ChatGPT alone)

* published hallucination rates (which vary widely by task)


Simple model:

H ≈ p × N

(p = hallucination rate, N = total AI outputs)


Assumptions (approximate):


* Total global AI usage: ~2–4× ChatGPT scale

* Hallucination rates: ~3% to ~15% depending on domain


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Estimated range (per week, global)


* Conservative: ~1B hallucinations/week

* Moderate: ~3–5B hallucinations/week

* Aggressive: ~7–10B hallucinations/week


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Important caveats


* These are not directly measured numbers

* Hallucination rates vary a lot by domain (legal ≫ casual chat)

* Not every output contains factual claims

* Some hallucinations are harmless; others matter a lot


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Takeaway


Even under conservative assumptions:


AI systems likely produce on the order of billions of hallucinated outputs per week globally.


And because usage is growing faster than accuracy improves,

total hallucinations are likely increasing, not decreasing.


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Sources:

OpenAI usage report:

https://lnkd.in/g2UeiFBB


Global AI usage stats:

https://lnkd.in/gCx85VEf


Hallucination studies:

https://lnkd.in/gHNkkyHr

https://lnkd.in/gbw5JzNb