Post #3154140
2026-06-06 16:46 UTC
I've never been opposed to the word "hallucinating" for describing how AI makes mistakes ... until now.
I just talked to someone who thought AI hallucinations would be obvious because it would be obvious if you talked to a *person* who was hallucinating.
In other words, they equated "hallucination" with "sounds wacko" and accepted AI output as true because it sounded level headed.
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Replies (1)
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@grammargirl@zirk.us 2026-06-06 16:46
The word "hallucination" isn't going away — it's a widely used industry term — but we need to explain it better for beginners: "Hallucination" is just a fancy word for "confidently makes mistakes": "Remember: AI hallucinates, and you need to confirm all facts" should be something like "Remember: AI confidently makes mistakes, and you need to confirm all facts" or "AI tells you things that are wrong in a way that sounds completely believable. Confirm all facts!"