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by TheRealPomax 1055 days ago
"Making shit up in order to fulfill some requirement" is the definition of lying, so whether it's a human or an AI, just making shit up in order to generate prompted output is flat out lying. Not "hallucinating". And the best part is that until LLM get valitidy checks baked in, even the things they get right are lies if presented with authority, because the LLM doesn't know whether it's true or not. In fact, the LLM doesn't know, full stop. It's still just a very well crafted autocomplete, and literally nothing more. So if we're going to anthropomorphise, call them what they'd be when humans do the same:

lies, and damned lies.
2 comments
irrational 1055 days ago
> "Making shit up in order to fulfill some requirement" is the definition of lying

I'd argue that there is an element of intent or agency involved. When a human makes things up intentionally or by choice, that is lying. When they do it unintentionally, that is not lying. It is usually called confabulation (or, honest lying - where the actor does not know they are not telling the truth). I don't think AIs/LLMs have agency or the ability to make things up intentionally. They are just doing what they are programmed to do and everything they produce looks the same to them. It is all true as far as the LLM is concerned. They might be confabulating, but I don't think they are lying.

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TheRealPomax 1055 days ago
The AI intentionally makes things up because that's literally the whole point of the LLM concept, both abstractly and concretely. WE MAKE IT LIE by conditioning it to lie. The "AI" part is not separate from the humans who made it, we are part of the system, and we made a computer that constantly and continuously lies in order to generate seemingly credible responses.

We made a computer that lies, all the time, about everything.

"...Why?"

<insert the shouting robot comic here>

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overnight5349 1055 days ago
Your argument is that any untruth is a lie.

Do you consider fiction authors to be liars?

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TheRealPomax 1055 days ago
No, my argument is that if you don't KNOW what truth is, everything you say is a lie.
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