Caveat: Aillucinations (Pseudosystematic significance)

When an AI (artificial intelligence) hallucinates, what shall we call it? I suggest aillucinations.

These AIs are not really that smart, though. Useful, yes, and intriguing, in a science-fictiony sort of way. But they have a long ways to go.

Case-in-point: google translate, which I use quite often, does some strange things, when you give it long strings of garbage. Its neural nets try to make sense of things, and the result is hallucinatory. This has been written about extensively at the Language Log blog – here is the most recent discussion (which includes links to earlier discussions).

I was curious about instances specific to the Korean-English domain (because I'd like to show some of my students, who overly trust online translators). So I set about finding some of my own examples. 

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With google translate, I can get some pretty weird stuff in the English -> Korean direction, with the following string:

ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
eieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei
ieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieieiei

These give:

상상력
신상품
상상력
도미니카 공화국
상상해 보아라.
신상품
상상해 보지 못하다.
도미니카 공화국 인민 공화국
상상해 보지 못하다.
신상품
상상력
도미니카 공화국 인민 공화국 의회
상상해 보지 못하다.
신상품
상상력
신상품
상상력이 풍부한 사람
신상품
상상해 보아라.
신상품
상상력이 풍부한 사람

Which, translated, in turn, back to English, gives:

imagination
new product
imagination
Dominican Republic
Imagine it.
new product
I can not imagine it.
Dominican Republic
I can not imagine it.
new product
imagination
Dominican Republic People's Congress
I can not imagine it.
new product
imagination
new product
Imaginative person
new product
Imagine it.
new product
Imaginative person

Can you imagine that? The google translate "imagined" it.

Going the reverse direction, Korean -> English, I got a nice result with:

유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유유

Which gives:

It is the oil that is used in the oil industry and the oil is the oil. The oil is the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil and the oil. In addition to the above, the term "oil" is used to refer to the oil as the oil and the oil as well as the oil and the lubricant. In addition to the above, the term "oil" is used to refer to the oil as the oil and the oil as well as the oil and the lubricant. It is a good idea to have a good night's sleep. It is the oil that is used in the oil industry and the oil is the oil. The oil is the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil and the oil. It is the oil that is used in the oil industry and the oil is the oil. The oil is the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil, the oil and the oil. You can not go wrong.

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As a matter of curiosity, I decided to experiment with papago, a clone of google translate being created by the Korean web portal Naver. So, English -> Korean, I got a result with:

u oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oeu oee ieoe iou u oe

Which gives:

넌 너의 아내를 보고 있어

Which returned to English is:

You are watching your wife.

I like that. Such a succinct translation! I found papago was easier to "trick" into hallucinating – it will begin getting creative with much shorter strings of nonsense. But it's clear the underlying technology is similar and has the same weaknesses.

Finally, I put in the following in the Korean -> English direction:

의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유의유

And I got:

CAUTION of a Pseudosystem of Pseudosystematic significance of significance of significance of significance of significance of freedom of consciousness of libertarian of liberate of liberality of freedom of libertarise of freedom of freedom of proceedings of freedom of proceedings of proceedings of freedom of will of proceedings

Which is awesome. Pseudosystematic significance, indeed!

Do note that finding strings that produce these kinds of aillucinations is a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition – there are many strings which "don't work" – i.e., they return simple nonsense in return for nonsense. But it can be rather addictively entertaining to keep trying various combinations and seeing what pops out.

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Happy aillucinating! I, for one, seem to have found a new, useless hobby.

[daily log: walking, 7km]