Hallucinations and Truth: A Comprehensive Accuracy Evaluation of RAG, LoRA and DoRA

Abstract

Recent advancements in Generative AI have significantly improved the efficiency and adaptability of natural language processing (NLP) systems, particularly through Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA), and Weight-Decomposed Low-Rank Adaptation (DoRA). RAG integrates external knowledge to enhance factual consistency in generative outputs, while LoRA enables parameter-efficient fine-tuning of large language models (LLMs). DoRA further refines this process by optimizing fine-tuning through adaptive parameter ranking and domain-aware weight adjustments, improving learning efficiency while maintaining inference performance. This paper presents a large-scale empirical evaluation of RAG, LoRA, and DoRA, with model fine-tuning and generation performance assessed on 20,000 FAQ-based queries, while the knowledge base spans 400,000 entries. The study analyzes key performance metrics such as accuracy, relevance, and inference latency. Experimental results demonstrate that DoRA achieves the highest accuracy (90.1%), relevance score (0.88), and lowest latency (110 ms per query), outperforming both LoRA and RAG in real-world, domain-specific generative AI applications. Furthermore, this study examines the trade-offs between fine-tuning efficiency, computational cost, and real-time adaptability across different models. Findings highlight RAG's effectiveness in knowledge grounding, LoRA's cost-efficient domain adaptation, and DoRA's ability to balance fine-tuning efficiency with model precision. These insights provide practical guidance for deploying AI-driven generative systems in accuracy-critical domains such as healthcare, finance, and legal services, ensuring scalability, reliability, and optimal performance in dynamic environments.