# Ever: Mitigating Hallucination in Large Language Models through Real-Time Verification and Rectification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09114 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09114/

## Key facts

- Cited by 38 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09600/) (2018)
- [TriviaQA: A Large Scale Distantly Supervised Challenge Dataset for Reading Comprehension](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.03551/) (2017)
- [Language Models (Mostly) Know What They Know](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.05221/) (2022)
- [Self-RAG: Learning to Retrieve, Generate, and Critique through Self-Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11511/) (2023)
- [Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10625/) (2022)
- [Inference-Time Intervention: Eliciting Truthful Answers from a Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03341/) (2023)
- [FActScore: Fine-grained Atomic Evaluation of Factual Precision in Long Form Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14251/) (2023)
- [Interleaving Retrieval with Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Knowledge-Intensive Multi-Step Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10509/) (2022)
- [CRITIC: Large Language Models Can Self-Correct with Tool-Interactive Critiquing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.11738/) (2023)
- [Contrastive Decoding: Open-ended Text Generation as Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.15097/) (2022)
- [Enabling Large Language Models to Generate Text with Citations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14627/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models Struggle to Learn Long-Tail Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.08411/) (2022)
- [Check Your Facts and Try Again: Improving Large Language Models with External Knowledge and Automated Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12813/) (2023)
- [Trusting Your Evidence: Hallucinate Less with Context-aware Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14739/) (2023)
- [FreshLLMs: Refreshing Large Language Models with Search Engine Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03214/) (2023)
- [How Language Model Hallucinations Can Snowball](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13534/) (2023)
- [FacTool: Factuality Detection in Generative AI -- A Tool Augmented Framework for Multi-Task and Multi-Domain Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.13528/) (2023)
- [Fine-tuning Language Models for Factuality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08401/) (2023)
- [A Stitch in Time Saves Nine: Detecting and Mitigating Hallucinations of LLMs by Validating Low-Confidence Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03987/) (2023)
- [Head-to-Tail: How Knowledgeable are Large Language Models (LLMs)? A.K.A. Will LLMs Replace Knowledge Graphs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10168/) (2023)
- [LM vs LM: Detecting Factual Errors via Cross Examination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13281/) (2023)
- [Verify-and-Edit: A Knowledge-Enhanced Chain-of-Thought Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03268/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [A Comprehensive Survey of Hallucination Mitigation Techniques in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.01313/) (2024)
- [ClashEval: Quantifying the tug-of-war between an LLM's internal prior and external evidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10198/) (2024)
- [Factuality of Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02420/) (2024)
- [Internal Consistency and Self-Feedback in Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.14507/) (2024)
- [Investigating and Mitigating the Multimodal Hallucination Snowballing in Large Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00569/) (2024)
- [Think More, Hallucinate Less: Mitigating Hallucinations via Dual Process of Fast and Slow Thinking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01306/) (2025)
- [HaluEval-Wild: Evaluating Hallucinations of Language Models in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04307/) (2024)
- [VeriSafe Agent: Safeguarding Mobile GUI Agent via Logic-based Action Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18492/) (2025)
- [Generative AI in EU Law: Liability, Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Cybersecurity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07348/) (2024)
- [On Mitigating Code LLM Hallucinations with API Documentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.09726/) (2024)
- [Atomic Fact Decomposition Helps Attributed Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16708/) (2024)
- [Towards Fine-Grained Citation Evaluation in Generated Text: A Comparative Analysis of Faithfulness Metrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15264/) (2024)
- [Investigating and Addressing Hallucinations of LLMs in Tasks Involving Negation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.05494/) (2024)
- [Improving Model Factuality with Fine-grained Critique-based Evaluator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18359/) (2024)
- [Certainly Uncertain: A Benchmark and Metric for Multimodal Epistemic and Aleatoric Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01942/) (2024)
- [Consecutive Batch Model Editing with HooK Layers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05330/) (2024)
- [FACTOID: FACtual enTailment fOr hallucInation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19113/) (2024)
- [CheckEmbed: Effective Verification of LLM Solutions to Open-Ended Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02524/) (2024)
- [Improving Factuality with Explicit Working Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18069/) (2024)
- [Zero-resource Hallucination Detection for Text Generation via Graph-based Contextual Knowledge Triples Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11283/) (2024)
- [LLMs can learn self-restraint through iterative self-reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13022/) (2024)
- [CLUE: Concept-Level Uncertainty Estimation for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03021/) (2024)
- [RAC: Efficient LLM Factuality Correction with Retrieval Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.15667/) (2024)
- [SwiftDossier: Tailored Automatic Dossier for Drug Discovery with LLMs and Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15817/) (2024)
- [A Unified Hallucination Mitigation Framework for Large Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16494/) (2024)
- [Addressing Hallucinations with RAG and NMISS in Italian Healthcare LLM Chatbots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04235/) (2024)
- [Shakespearean Sparks: The Dance of Hallucination and Creativity in LLMs' Decoding Layers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02851/) (2025)
- [MobiBench: Multi-Branch, Modular Benchmark for Mobile GUI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.12634/) (2025)
- [Decomposing and Revising What Language Models Generate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.00765/) (2025)
- [CARE-RFT: Confidence-Anchored Reinforcement Finetuning for Reliable Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00085/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable proficiency in generating fluent text. However, they often encounter the challenge of generating inaccurate or hallucinated content. This issue is common in both non-retrieval-based generation and retrieval-augmented generation approaches, and existing post-hoc rectification methods may not address the accumulated hallucination errors that may be caused by the "snowballing" issue, especially in reasoning tasks. To tackle these challenges, we introduce a novel approach called Real-time Verification and Rectification (Ever). Instead of waiting until the end of the generation process to rectify hallucinations, Ever employs a real-time, step-wise generation and hallucination rectification strategy. The primary objective is to detect and rectify hallucinations as they occur during the text generation process. When compared to both retrieval-based and non-retrieval-based baselines, Ever demonstrates a significant improvement in generating trustworthy and factually accurate text across a diverse range of tasks, including short-form QA, biography generation, and multi-hop reasoning.