3 ms·

"Hallucination" makes it sound like ChatGPT drank some of the punch without realizing it was laced with LSD. "Bullshit" sounds more like what comes out of an ov

by s1mon 3y ago

"Hallucination" makes it sound like ChatGPT drank some of the punch without realizing it was laced with LSD. "Bullshit" sounds more like what comes out of an overconfident ass who should or could know better with some better education.

delecti 3y ago
Hallucination is a better descriptor for what an LLM is doing though. A bullshitter knows they don't know, an LLM just strings words together in ways that fit what it "saw" from training data. IMO the main problem with calling them hallucinations is the implication that the true things they say are true on purpose. It's hallucinating the true things too.
- mdp2021 3y ago
  Exactly, but no, there should be no «implication that the true things they» output are not part of that: required modules for foundational thinking (let us say "critical thinking") are missing. (Issue is, now some are convinced that people in general would do the same and just blurt out the feedforward output of their "internal neural network", as opposed to having built knowledge in a loop of critical evaluation.)
- ImHereToVote 3y ago
  In Swedish the term for perception and misapprehension is the same word. Because it is the same thing.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  _Both_ are an inappropriate degree of anthropomorphism IMO.
balnaphone 3y ago
"Confabulation" is the correct and precise term that comports with the English language, rather than being jargon requiring a neologism.
- mdp2021 3y ago
  > "Confabulation" And why would that be? "Hallucination" means "erratic wandering", implying one is lost - similarly to "delirium" (maetaphor using the plough) and "error". Part of the idea is that of "instead of witnessing the correct, reporting the false" - a very ancient, traditional idea, and akin to the concept of "intelligence" (intus-legere). "Confabulation" means locutor and interlocutor are talking, exchanging narrations.
  - codetrotter 3y ago
    > In psychology, confabulation is a memory error defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery) or a specific subset of dementias. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation
    - mdp2021 3y ago
      Interesting, I will check that more analytically as soon as I will be back at the console, but I am not sure - provisionally - that it can be a good idea to relate strictly human neurology to ANNs, if based on phenomena as opposed to structural issues. You do not have that problem when staying with natural language.

by s1mon 3y ago

delecti 3y ago

Hallucination is a better descriptor for what an LLM is doing though. A bullshitter knows they don't know, an LLM just strings words together in ways that fit what it "saw" from training data. IMO the main problem with calling them hallucinations is the implication that the true things they say are true on purpose. It's hallucinating the true things too.

mdp2021 3y ago
Exactly, but no, there should be no «implication that the true things they» output are not part of that: required modules for foundational thinking (let us say "critical thinking") are missing. (Issue is, now some are convinced that people in general would do the same and just blurt out the feedforward output of their "internal neural network", as opposed to having built knowledge in a loop of critical evaluation.)
ImHereToVote 3y ago
In Swedish the term for perception and misapprehension is the same word. Because it is the same thing.
rsynnott 3y ago
_Both_ are an inappropriate degree of anthropomorphism IMO.

balnaphone 3y ago

"Confabulation" is the correct and precise term that comports with the English language, rather than being jargon requiring a neologism.

mdp2021 3y ago
> "Confabulation" And why would that be? "Hallucination" means "erratic wandering", implying one is lost - similarly to "delirium" (maetaphor using the plough) and "error". Part of the idea is that of "instead of witnessing the correct, reporting the false" - a very ancient, traditional idea, and akin to the concept of "intelligence" (intus-legere). "Confabulation" means locutor and interlocutor are talking, exchanging narrations.
- codetrotter 3y ago
  > In psychology, confabulation is a memory error defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery) or a specific subset of dementias. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation
  - mdp2021 3y ago
    Interesting, I will check that more analytically as soon as I will be back at the console, but I am not sure - provisionally - that it can be a good idea to relate strictly human neurology to ANNs, if based on phenomena as opposed to structural issues. You do not have that problem when staying with natural language.