Inferential-Link Grounding Failure

A synthesis can connect individually supported facts in a relationship that no cited source actually establishes.

Retrieval grounding does not prevent the model from inventing the relation between retrieved facts. It may transfer a general statement to a specific place, infer causation from topical proximity, or attach an irrelevant detail to the subject. Every component fact can appear in context while the combined claim remains unsupported.

Sentence-level citation entailment catches only part of this failure. Require the evidence to support the scope and relationship asserted, not merely its entities, and include this check among grounding quality dimensions. High-level sensemaking still needs expert review when the relationship is consequential.

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Sources

• Shao et al. (2024), full paper, pp. 1–27