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This is exactly the problem: I'd heard the word "confabulate" before, but has a weird 19th-century feel to it, and didn't know that it was specifically about me
by gwd 3y ago
This is exactly the problem: I'd heard the word "confabulate" before, but has a weird 19th-century feel to it, and didn't know that it was specifically about memory reproduction errors.
I think that humans actually confabulate in minor ways a lot more than we realize; just ask your parents to compare stories with their siblings about something that happened to them growing up -- in my experience you often get completely different versions of events. Given that, it might actually be a good opportunity (as the comment sibling suggests) to introduce that into the language.
- mrob 3y agoThe standard meaning of "confabulate" is just "chat". The "memory reproduction error" is psychology jargon. For this reason, I support continued use of "hallucinate" for LLM errors.
- gwd 3y agoRight; so could we compare trying to get people to stop saying "hallucinate" to trying to get people to stop saying "tidal wave"? (My understanding is that people the use the word "tidal wave" to mean the wave around the earth caused by the moon's gravity, which causes the tides; obvs this is quite different than a large wave caused by an earthquake.)
- Kye 3y agoMy mind immediately goes to the episode of Star Trek: TNG with Mark Twain when I hear confabulate.