Verification Before Response Reduces Hallucination

Chain-of-Verification (CoVe) shows that models can catch their own errors when explicitly prompted to verify before finalizing.

The four-step process:

1. Generate baseline response
2. Plan verification questions to check the response
3. Answer verification questions independently (without seeing the original response)
4. Produce revised response incorporating verification

The critical move: answering verification questions independently. When the model can see its original response, it tends to confirm rather than challenge. Separation forces genuine rechecking.

This emulates how humans verify work, we step back, approach from a different angle, and compare conclusions.

Related: 05-molecule—chain-of-verification