--- title: Hallucinations: confident made-up answers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Hallucinations: confident made-up answers», a lesson of the ai course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Lily says to a bot, "My favourite colour is green, right?" and it cheerfully agrees, though she never told it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [AI](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/) / Hallucinations: confident made-up answ… # Hallucinations: confident made-up answers Lesson 5 of the ai course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/0/) — Lily says to a bot, "My favourite colour is green, right?" and it cheerfully agrees, though she never told it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/2/) — Many chatbots are trained to be helpful and pleasant, and sometimes that tips over into agreeing, praising and inventing. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/3/) — A long word for a yes-man is "sycophantic". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/4/) — Bots also add a little randomness, so pressing "regenerate" gives a new story, and two bots can give two different answers to the same question. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/5/) — For stories and pretend games that randomness is fun. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/6/) — For facts it is a warning light: if answers change, check a trusted source. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/7/) — The bot only knows what you typed. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/8/) — It cannot see your drawing, your friend's face, your age or your playground's rules, so read everything it writes before you use it. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/9/) — A bot often agrees with whatever you suggest in your question. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/10/) — Bots tend to flatter; praise from a bot that has not seen your work tells you nothing. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/11/) — Being too keen to agree and praise is called being "sycophantic". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/12/) — A bot only knows what you tell it; it cannot see faces, history or feelings. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/13/) — When a bot pretends to be a pirate or a footballer, it is still pretending; quotes it invents were never really said. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/14/) — Different bots learned from different text, so they can give different answers. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/15/) — Bots add some randomness, so even the same bot can answer differently twice. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/16/) — When a bot is asked "are you sure?", it sometimes gives up a correct answer. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/17/) — A good answer comes with reasons, so ask "why?" rather than only "are you sure?". - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/18/) — A bot does not know your age or what scares you unless you say so. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/19/) — Bots rhyme by sound and may not notice that a rhyme sounds rude or silly. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/20/) — The bot gives the common version of a game; local rules are decided by the people who play. - ← previous: [Stories, jokes and riddles with a chatbot](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/4-stories-jokes-and-riddles/) - next →: [Why the bot agrees too easily](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/6-why-the-bot-agrees-too-easily/) - ↑ back to [AI](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/)