Hallucinations of artificial intelligence

Chiranjib Haldar

WHEN Merriam-Webster, an esteemed lexicon, zeroed in on ‘authentic’ as the word of 2023, thanks to escalating online searches, not many people were startled. In the age of gaslighting, where you can spread gross misinformation about a person, institution or event, it is tough to be authentic. No wonder gaslighting, last year’s prized word, is often termed as the alter ego of ‘authentic’.

Let’s accept that our social media posts are carefully curated extensions of our persona. Our ideal, delusional self is an important part of our imagined identity. We are improving at pretending to be real. Snacking, chilling out or watching cringe-making content entice us into passivity. Responding to friends on social media is a way of validating their opinion, be it with a ‘like’ or an emoji. There is an entire virtual world waiting to engulf you, intoxicate you and finally make you oblivious of life’s necessities. Mindless scrolling through reels is like an opiate; it benumbs the senses more than it excites them. And in a world in which we carefully craft digital selves, it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish personality from persona.

This brings us to Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year: ‘hallucinate’. Apart from the original meaning, ‘seem to see, hear, feel or smell something that does not exist, usually due to a health condition or drug’, hallucinate also means artificial intelligence systems generating text that mimics human writing and produces false information. So, AI hallucinations prove that humans still need to bring critical thinking to the use of tools like ChatGPT and large language models. Today’s lexicographers term hallucinate as a verb that means ‘to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual’. From the advent of ChatGPT to cases of deepfakes involving celebrities, we are still figuring out if this technical prowess will accelerate human development or is something to be distressed about.

The Oxford Dictionary word of the year, ‘rizz’, is inextricably connected to ‘authentic’ and ‘hallucinate’. Though you can rizz up to attract, seduce or chat up a person, the persona may not be authentic but hallucinatory. According to the Oxford University Press, the ‘winning’ word or expression must symbolise a period and exhibit the potential for lasting cultural significance. At times, charm and charisma or rizz can be endorsed differently. Take two political leaders who are at loggerheads. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, with his pithy catchphrases, inspirational speeches and attractive dance moves, displays rizz. His Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, releasing ‘macho’ photos of him riding horses and hunting bare-bodied, is also rizz. But then, any critic of the ongoing conflict will tell you that waging a war on your neighbour cannot be termed rizz.

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