Hinton: AI 'Hallucinations' Should Be Called 'Confabulations'
r0ck3t23 · x · 2026-07-06
Geoffrey Hinton argues that erroneous AI outputs should not be called "hallucinations" but rather "confabulations." He notes that the human brain does not store memories like a filing cabinet or computer memory, but reconstructs them on demand. The author comments that the tech industry's view of AI confidently giving wrong answers as a bug to be fixed actually measures intelligence by a "filing cabinet" standard, revealing a misunderstanding of its true nature. Hinton dismantles critics' arguments with a single word—because their brains are also confabulating.
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