False positive
Also called false alarm, false positives
A flag raised on something that's actually fine: a review comment on correct code, or an alert on a harmless email.
Any system that flags things, a spam filter, a security scanner, an AI code reviewer, makes 2 kinds of mistake. A false positive is a flag on something that was fine. A false negative is a real problem it missed.
False positives cost more than the time to dismiss them. Once people learn that most flags are noise, they stop reading flags carefully, and the accurate ones get ignored with the rest. That's why a review tool that's right about security but noisy about naming can end up with its security findings dismissed too.
For example
A review bot flags every short loop variable as a naming problem, though the team uses them on purpose.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet false positive in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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