What is AI Hallucination? What Goes Wrong with AI Chatbots? How to Spot a Hallucinating Artificial Intelligence?

AI hallucination is not a new problem. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made considerable advances over the past few years, becoming more proficient at activities previously only performed by humans. Yet, hallucination is a problem that has become a big obstacle for AI. Developers have cautioned against AI models producing wholly false facts and replying to questions with made-up replies as though they were true. As it can jeopardize the applications’ accuracy, dependability, and trustworthiness, hallucination is a serious barrier to developing and deploying AI systems. As a result, those working in AI are actively looking for solutions to this problem. This blog will explore the implications and effects of AI hallucinations and possible measures users might take to reduce the dangers of accepting or disseminating incorrect information.

 What is AI Hallucination?

The phenomenon known as artificial intelligence hallucination happens when an AI model produces results that are not what was anticipated. Be aware that some AI models have been taught to purposefully make outputs without connection to real-world input (data).

Hallucination is the word used to describe the situation when AI algorithms and deep learning neural networks create results that are not real, do not match any data the algorithm has been trained on, or do not follow any other discernible pattern.

AI hallucinations can take many different shapes, from creating false news reports to false assertions or documents about persons, historical events, or scientific facts. For instance, an AI program like ChatGPT can fabricate a historical figure with a full biography and accomplishments that were never real. In the current era of social media and immediate communication, where a single tweet or Facebook post can reach millions of people in seconds, the potential for such incorrect information to spread rapidly and widely is especially problematic.

Why Does AI Hallucination Occur?

Adversarial examples—input data that deceive an AI program into misclassifying them—can cause AI hallucinations. For instance, developers use data (such as images, texts, or other types) to train AI systems; if the data is altered or distorted, the application interprets the input differently and produces an incorrect result.

Hallucinations may occur in big language-based models like ChatGPT and its equivalents due to improper transformer decoding (machine learning model). Using an encoder-decoder (input-output) sequence, a transformer in AI is a deep learning model that employs self-attention (semantic connections between words in a sentence) to create text that resembles what a human would write.

In terms of hallucination, it is anticipated that the output would be made-up and wrong if a language model were trained on adequate and accurate data and resources. The language model might produce a story or narrative without illogical gaps or ambiguous links.

Ways to spot AI hallucination

A subfield of artificial intelligence, computer vision, aims to teach computers how to extract useful data from visual input, such as pictures, drawings, movies, and actual life. It is training computers to perceive the world as one does. Still, since computers are not people, they must rely on algorithms and patterns to “understand” pictures rather than having direct access to human perception. As a result, an AI might be unable to distinguish between potato chips and changing leaves. This situation also passes the common sense test: Compared to what a human is likely to view, an AI-generated image. Of course, this is getting harder and harder as AI becomes more advanced.

If artificial intelligence weren’t quickly being incorporated into everyday lives, all of this would be absurd and humorous. Self-driving automobiles, where hallucinations may result in fatalities, already employ AI. Although it hasn’t happened, misidentifying items while driving in the actual world is a calamity just waiting to happen.

Here are a few techniques for identifying AI hallucinations when utilizing popular AI applications: 

1.   Large Language Processing Models

Grammatical errors in information generated by a large processing model, like ChatGPT, are uncommon, but when they occur, you should be suspicious of hallucinations. Similarly, one should be suspicious of hallucinations when text-generated content doesn’t make sense, fit in with the context provided, or match the input data.

2.   Computer Vision

Artificial intelligence has a subfield called computer vision, machine learning, and computer science that enables machines to detect and interpret images similarly to human eyes. They rely on massive visual training data in convolutional neural networks.

Hallucinations will occur if the visual data patterns utilized for training change. For instance, a computer might mistakenly recognize a tennis ball as green or orange if it had yet to be educated with images of tennis balls. A computer may also experience an AI hallucination if it mistakenly interprets a horse standing next to a human statue as a real horse.

Comparing the output produced to what a [normal] human is expected to observe will help you identify a computer vision delusion.

3.   Self-Driving Cars

Self-driving cars are progressively gaining traction in the automotive industry thanks to AI. Self-driving car pioneers like Ford’s BlueCruise and Tesla Autopilot have promoted the initiative. You can learn a little about how AI powers self-driving automobiles by looking at how and what the Tesla Autopilot perceives.

Hallucinations affect people differently than they do AI models. AI hallucinations are incorrect results that are vastly out of alignment with reality or do not make sense in the context of the provided prompt. An AI chatbot, for instance, can respond grammatically or logically incorrectly or mistakenly identify an object due to noise or other structural problems.

Like human hallucinations, AI hallucinations are not the product of a conscious or subconscious mind. Instead, it results from inadequate or insufficient data being used to train and design the AI system.

The risks of AI hallucination must be considered, especially when using generative AI output for important decision-making. Although AI can be a helpful tool, it should be viewed as a first draft that humans must carefully review and validate. As AI technology develops, it is crucial to use it critically and responsibly while being conscious of its drawbacks and ability to cause hallucinations. By taking the necessary precautions, one can use its capabilities while preserving the accuracy and integrity of the data.

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References:

• https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-ai-hallucination-and-how-do-you-spot-it/
• https://lifehacker.com/how-to-tell-when-an-artificial-intelligence-is-hallucin-1850280001
• https://www.burtchworks.com/2023/03/07/is-your-ai-hallucinating/
• https://medium.com/chatgpt-learning/chatgtp-and-the-generative-ai-hallucinations-62feddc72369