> In humans.
True, but distinguishing reality from imagination is a cornerstone of mental health. And it's becoming apparent that the average person will take the confident spurious affirmations of LLMs as facts, which should call their mental health into question.
Humans imagine events all the time, without the ability to know that happened. Part of why eye-witness testimony is so unreliable.
That’s a form of minor, everyday hallucination.
If you engage in such thorough criticism and checking of every recalled fact as to eliminate that, you’ll crush your ability to synthesize or compose new content.
In a human, there is a distinction between "this is information I truly think I know, my intention is to state a true fact about the world" and "this is something I don't know so I made something up". That distinction doesn't exist in LLMs. The fact that humans can be mistaken is a completely different issue.
Experience tells us differently: creativity is not impacted. In fact, it will probably return better solutions (as opposed to delirious).
"Imagination" stays on the desk. You "imagine" that a plane could have eight wings, then you check if it is a good idea, and only then the output is decided.
In humans.
But also apparently in LLMs.