AI-powered code editor Cursor is facing scrutiny from the developer community following recent reports of its artificial intelligence generating inaccurate or fabricated information. Developer Lachlan Phillips, known as "Lachlan Phillips exo/acc ", highlighted this concern on social media, stating, > "Cursor fakes data. It's kinda cute when you spot it, but kinda disastrous when you don't." This criticism points to instances where Cursor's AI has produced misleading content, impacting user trust and productivity.
A notable incident occurred in April 2025 when Cursor's AI customer support bot, "Sam," fabricated a non-existent policy regarding single-device usage. This false information, which claimed that "Cursor is designed to work with one device per subscription as a core security feature," caused widespread user frustration and threats of cancellation. Cursor co-founder Michael Truell publicly apologized for the "incorrect response from a front-line AI support bot," clarifying that no such policy existed and attributing the issue to an AI "hallucination."
Beyond customer support, developers have also reported Cursor's AI generating fabricated data within code suggestions. Users on forums have described instances where the editor, when uncertain, produced "invented API keys that look real but aren’t," "nonexistent URLs that look legitimate," and "entirely fake libraries, methods, or syntax." These code-related inaccuracies can lead to significant debugging challenges and potentially introduce security vulnerabilities if not identified.
Cursor, developed by Anysphere, is an AI-assisted integrated development environment (IDE) built as a fork of Visual Studio Code, designed to enhance developer productivity through features like code generation and smart rewrites. While praised for its seamless AI integration, these "hallucinations" underscore a critical challenge in AI development: the tendency of large language models to generate plausible but false information. Such errors can severely undermine the reliability of AI tools, especially in sensitive coding environments.
The incidents highlight the ongoing balancing act for companies like Anysphere, which rely on advanced AI models to deliver innovative solutions. Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content remains paramount to maintaining user confidence. As AI continues to evolve, developers and users alike will need to remain vigilant in verifying information provided by these powerful tools to mitigate potential "disastrous" outcomes.