What are AI hallucinations?

AI engines sometimes dream up information seemingly from nowhere, or learn unexpected skills

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What are AI hallucinations?
Illustration: Vicky Leta

Concerns about AI developing skills independently of its programmers’ wishes have long absorbed scientists, ethicists, and, of course, plenty of science fiction writers.

But perhaps we should be more concerned about what it gets flagrantly wrong, sometimes with an alarming amount of confidence. The industry calls these screw-ups “hallucinations.”

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Tomorrow, the Weekend Brief will look at AI’s hallucination problem and how these engines even develop unexpected skills.

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