[tsmarsh]

I find the easiest way of explaining LLMs to laypeople is "Bulls*t Engine". If tuned well they're going to answer like a salesperson or internet troll: if they don't know they will BS before they don't answer. Its not hallucinating, or confabulation its BS.

That's not to say they're not useful. The ability to BS is well regarded among humans as long as you, as a consumer, have a decent BS detector. And like a good BS artist, if you stay within their area of expertise they can be really useful. Its when you ask them something that they should or almost know that they start to be full of s**.

[jfengel]

To me, "confabulating" implies deliberately attempting to mislead. I like "bullshit" better -- bullshitting might be lying, but it can also mean simply trying your best in the attempt to please. To the degree that an LLM "wants" something, it's to give you an answer that makes you happy, even if it doesn't know the truth.

The fact that BS is also used for deliberate lying to mislead is a strike against that word. Using "bullshit" and "hallucinate" in conjunction somewhat paint a picture of the quality of the answer you get and the "motivation" used to get there.