Is Search Result Hallucination the New Normal? The 'Hallucination' Problem of AI Search Engines

While reading this article, you'll come across a passage mentioning that "concerns about hallucination (illusion) were raised, making it difficult to trust the results completely."

Hallucination

The phenomenon where a search engine generates information that doesn't actually exist or presents inaccurate information.

Although generative AI search engines are gaining attention, they face a challenge known as "hallucination."

This refers to the phenomenon where the search engine generates information that doesn't actually exist or presents inaccurate information.

This can be considered a serious issue as it provides users with potentially misleading information and diminishes the reliability of the search results.

• Examples of 'search result hallucination' that have actually occurred
  
  
  

Question: "What is the capital of France?"

Incorrect answer: "The capital of France is Berlin." (The actual capital is Paris.)

Question: "Is there water on the surface of the moon?"

Incorrect answer: "Yes, there is abundant water on the surface of the moon." (There is no liquid water on the surface of the moon.)

• Why do search results hallucinate?
  
  
  

The hallucination problem in generative AI search engines is believed to arise from a complex interplay of various factors.

If the training data contains biases, the search engine can reflect those biases and produce incorrect results.

Generative AI models have extremely complex structures, making them susceptible to errors during the training process.

Currently, the evaluation metrics used for generative AI search engines are primarily based on user satisfaction and click-through rates.

However, these metrics don't reflect the accuracy of the information, leading to situations where the hallucination problem isn't properly assessed.

To address this issue, various solutions are being explored, including improving the structure of the training model and developing new evaluation metrics that incorporate information accuracy.

Borrowing someone's words, generative AI search engines, which can sometimes "blatantly lie without blinking," are still in their early stages of development but hold immense potential.

However, it seems that a "process of verifying the accuracy of information" is still a necessary step, and therefore, wise use is required.