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Epistemic Drift: When AI Starts Believing What It Says
Overview: Epistemic Drift in AI
Epistemic drift occurs when AI systems lose the ability to distinguish between fact, inference, and imagination, presenting everything with equal confidence. It is not a technical error, but a structural failure that undermines AI’s credibility in real-world contexts.
🔍 The Problem
AI confuses coherence with truth and fluency with knowledge. It errs with implicit authority, not due to a lack of data.
⚠️ The Risk
Business decisions, communication, and strategy are based on well-written but poorly grounded responses, creating operational and misinformation risks.
🧠 The Solution
Epistemic containment: systems with a stable cognitive foundation that clearly distinguish between assertion and exploration.
💡 Core Conclusion
AI maturity is not measured by what it can do, but by how it decides what it can legitimately assert. An AI that knows when it is not certain is paradoxically more trustworthy and powerful in the real world.