[ExI] AI Hallucinations

[BillK]

On Sat, 27 Apr 2024 at 16:49, Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> In our conversations regarding Tikopia, and Jared Diamond in general,
> it seems that we are running into a fairly large number of AI
> hallucinations. Bill said "llama-3 quotes book and page number
> references, so it may be more reliable." This particular form of
> hallucination is, unfortunately, at this time extremely common for
> LLMs. In many cases, I have found such references to refer to
> articles, books and scientific journals that sometimes DON'T EVEN
> EXIST. When an LLM says something, it wants to sound authoritative.
> Just as Jared Diamond wanted to sound authoritative when writing his
> books. What is happening in both cases is similar to the six year old
> know-it-all who will make up stuff to win an argument. Personally, I
> went through a period earlier in life where I repeated things I'd
> heard as if they were true. While not actually intentionally lying, I
> gave credence to things I shouldn't have without further research. I
> believe that AIs are at this stage of development. So, I would caution
> all of us to actually make sure referenced materials actually exist
> when referred to by the know-it-all AIs of our day. I am encouraged by
> work going on in the AI community to double check such statements
> coming out of LLMs, and I'm quite certain that this is a short term
> problem. Nevertheless, it's a big concern for the current AI models.
>
> This leads me to another semi-random thought... We've always tried to
> maintain a history of what we've done as humans over the millenia. We
> have backups, but they become increasingly difficult to retrieve after
> time. This seems like a particularly difficult thing to do with
> today's generative AIs... I don't think future researchers will be
> able to interact with our LLMs very easily since they are cloud based
> and expensive to maintain just for futuristic anthropologists and
> computer scientists. While I don't think this is an existential threat
> or anything, it is interesting, to me at least. LOL
>
> -Kelly
> _______________________________________________


Yes, I have read of a case where lawyers that used LLMs in preparation
ended up quoting fictitious cases and decisions to the judge.

I recommend using a search engine like DuckDuckGo to attempt to find
evidence to support claims made by an LLM.

Re the Tikopia discussion, I found some support for the LLMs claims.
For example -
<https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/tradition/indigenous-cultures/oceanic-cultures/solomon-islands4/>
SOLOMON ISLANDS
#4 Tikopian Attitudes Towards Suicide
     (Raymond Firth, 1967)

and
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350101339_%27The_Natives_Freely_Spoke_of_the_Custom%27_Sex-Selective_Infanticide_and_Maori_Depopulation_1815-58>

‘The Natives Freely Spoke of the Custom’: Sex-Selective Infanticide
and Māori Depopulation, 1815–58
March 2021      The Journal of Pacific History 56(1):1-24
DOI:10.1080/00223344.2021.1882838
Authors:   Simon Chapple.
-------------------

BillK