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3. Getting facts right

Eval (evaluation)

A repeatable test for AI quality: a set of real questions with known good answers, run against the system to score it — before and after every change. The AI equivalent of a test drive, done the same way every time.

Why it matters: without evals, "it seems better now" is vibes. With them, you can prove a change helped, catch regressions, and — critically — know your accuracy before customers do. This is where "passed its demo" and "actually works" part ways.