Why does AI hallucinate code, and how do I avoid it?

AI hallucination in code happens because models predict plausible-sounding tokens rather than verifying factual accuracy. They may invent API methods that don't exist, reference deprecated packages, or confidently produce broken logic. To minimize hallucinations: provide explicit context, ask the model to cite its sources, test all generated code, and use tools with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over real documentation.