Models write confident code against libraries and functions that do not exist. A 2024 study of 16 code-generating models (Spracklen and others, 576,000 code samples) found that at least 5.2% of the packages suggested by commercial models, and 21.7% of those suggested by open-source models, did not exist; it counted 205,474 distinct invented package names.
An invented name is a gift to an attacker: register it, and the next install pulls their code. The practice has been nicknamed "slopsquatting", and supply-chain problems now have their own entry, A03, in the OWASP Top 10:2025.
Before installing anything new: open its page on the package index, check who publishes it, how long it has existed and whether its repository is real. Watch for names one typo away from a famous package.
Invented functions fail more loudly but later: a keyword argument a library never had, a method with a plausible name. Run the code path once, and keep the library's documentation open beside the diff.