Cambridge Dictionary reveals 'hallucinate' is the word of the year but it now has a new meaning

The Cambridge Dictionary has announced that the word of the year is 'hallucinate' - and revealed it now has a new meaning.

Obviously, the term has been knocking about for a long time, and I'm pretty sure we are all well aware of what it stood for.

The traditional definition of hallucinate is experiencing an apparent sensory perception of something that is not actually present.

Maybe you've had a bang to the head, taken drugs or have a health condition which can cause you to see pink elephants.

Hallucinating means you are seeing, hearing, feeling or smelling something that does not exist.

But in this day and age, humans aren't the only ones who can get a bit delirious - so the definition has now been tweaked.

As we may start talking a load of rubbish when we're imagining things, so does artificial intelligence.

The advanced tech has invaded our everyday lives in the form of chatbots - such as ChatGPT, Bard, BingAI and even on Snapchat.

Although it's pretty reliable, the robots aren't completely dependable. Sometimes what they churn out isn't exactly accurate or fact checked, as they are analysing huge amounts of data, while trying to replicate a human dialogue.

So, Cambridge Dictionary decided to dub this an AI's hallucination - hence the new definition of the word.

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So now, when AI produces false information, it will be hallucinating.

The new meaning is: "When an artificial intelligence (= a computer system that has some of the qualities that the human brain has, such as the ability to produce language in a way that seems human) hallucinates, it produces false information."

Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary's publishing manager, said: "The fact that AIs can 'hallucinate' reminds us that humans still need to bring their critical thinking skills to the use of these tools.

"AIs are fantastic at churning through huge amounts of data to extract specific information and consolidate it. But the more original you ask them to be, the likelier they are to go astray."

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AI tools use large language models (LLMs) and 'can only be as reliable as their training data,' she added.

Hallucinate was crowned as word of the year by Cambridge Dictionary because the new meaning 'gets to the heart of why people are talking about AI'.

If anything, I think the news will give tech firms a kick up the bum to fix the current issues of inaccuracy, I mean, hallucinating.

Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Technology, UK News, Education, Books

Olivia Burke

Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary.

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