5 ms·

A challenge is that it’s not easy to limit hallucinations without also limiting imagination and synthesis. In humans. But also apparently in LLMs.

namaria 2y ago
> A challenge is that it’s not easy to limit hallucinations without also limiting imagination and synthesis. > In humans. True, but distinguishing reality from imagination is a cornerstone of mental health. And it's becoming apparent that the average person will take the confident spurious affirmations of LLMs as facts, which should call their mental health into question.
- zmgsabst 2y ago
  Misremembering facts isn’t a negative mental health event, yet is an example of imagination rather than recall — similar to LLMs hallucinating. Humans imagine events all the time, without the ability to know that happened. Part of why eye-witness testimony is so unreliable.
mort96 2y ago
Healthy humans generally have some internal model of the world against which they can judge what they're about to say. They can introspect and determine whether what they say is a guess or a statement of fact. LLMs can't.
- zmgsabst 2y ago
  Humans routinely misremember facts but are relatively certain those remembrances are correct. That’s a form of minor, everyday hallucination. If you engage in such thorough criticism and checking of every recalled fact as to eliminate that, you’ll crush your ability to synthesize or compose new content.
  - mort96 2y ago
    No, that's not hallucination. In a human, there is a distinction between "this is information I truly think I know, my intention is to state a true fact about the world" and "this is something I don't know so I made something up". That distinction doesn't exist in LLMs. The fact that humans can be mistaken is a completely different issue.
  - mdp2021 2y ago
    > If you engage in such thorough criticism and checking of every recalled fact as to eliminate that, you’ll Experience tells us differently: creativity is not impacted. In fact, it will probably return better solutions (as opposed to delirious).
mdp2021 2y ago
On office desks there were "In" boxes and "Out" boxes. You do not put "imagination" in "Out" boxes. What is put in "Out" boxes must be checked and stamped. "Imagination" stays on the desk. You "imagine" that a plane could have eight wings, then you check if it is a good idea, and only then the output is decided.

namaria 2y ago

> A challenge is that it’s not easy to limit hallucinations without also limiting imagination and synthesis. > In humans. True, but distinguishing reality from imagination is a cornerstone of mental health. And it's becoming apparent that the average person will take the confident spurious affirmations of LLMs as facts, which should call their mental health into question.

zmgsabst 2y ago
Misremembering facts isn’t a negative mental health event, yet is an example of imagination rather than recall — similar to LLMs hallucinating. Humans imagine events all the time, without the ability to know that happened. Part of why eye-witness testimony is so unreliable.

mort96 2y ago

Healthy humans generally have some internal model of the world against which they can judge what they're about to say. They can introspect and determine whether what they say is a guess or a statement of fact. LLMs can't.

zmgsabst 2y ago
Humans routinely misremember facts but are relatively certain those remembrances are correct. That’s a form of minor, everyday hallucination. If you engage in such thorough criticism and checking of every recalled fact as to eliminate that, you’ll crush your ability to synthesize or compose new content.
- mort96 2y ago
  No, that's not hallucination. In a human, there is a distinction between "this is information I truly think I know, my intention is to state a true fact about the world" and "this is something I don't know so I made something up". That distinction doesn't exist in LLMs. The fact that humans can be mistaken is a completely different issue.
- mdp2021 2y ago
  > If you engage in such thorough criticism and checking of every recalled fact as to eliminate that, you’ll Experience tells us differently: creativity is not impacted. In fact, it will probably return better solutions (as opposed to delirious).

mdp2021 2y ago

On office desks there were "In" boxes and "Out" boxes. You do not put "imagination" in "Out" boxes. What is put in "Out" boxes must be checked and stamped. "Imagination" stays on the desk. You "imagine" that a plane could have eight wings, then you check if it is a good idea, and only then the output is decided.