And we've learned something about the human impulse for storytelling from confabulation, so what unmasks it. Confabulation, there are many different-- among many black box aspects of the human brain, I think we still have yet to fully understand what causes someone to confabulate.
from his personal story that found their way into these confabulations. So confabulation is shockingly common. It happens after a range of different kinds of neurologic injuries, from loss of vision, to loss of language, to loss of memory, to loss of strength.
of neurologic illness, that people will tell these stories. But confabulation is something that we do on a much smaller scale, just as we move through the world. I think the world is such a-- there's so much sensory input.
So, yes. So confabulation is this really fascinating and perplexing symptom that many people experience when they have some sort of wound to their brain. So what confabulation is is it's your brain's desire to tell a story beyond your conscious perception. So you have no idea that what you're telling is a story that's not rooted in reality.
and is missing details of their own life or is missing details about how they ended up in the hospital or how they ended up ill. Their brain will confabulate a story to fill in those gaps. And that confabulation can be something like-- I often ask people who are struggling with their memory whether we've met before and how we've met,
Their brain will confabulate a story to fill in those gaps. And that confabulation can be something like-- I often ask people who are struggling with their memory whether we've met before and how we've met, and I've gotten answers like we were childhood sweethearts.
Confabulation, there are many different-- among many black box aspects of the human brain, I think we still have yet to fully understand what causes someone to confabulate. And it depends a little bit on what kind of confabulations they're experiencing.
And they're as behooved as the researchers are. They'll confabulate a little bit. I had a general intuition about it.
That's a really interesting point. Now, what's very common, very, very common It's called confabulation. We paint a picture for ourselves that's pleasing to us. That's why introspection is a very poor tool
Is it a thing that I directly witnessed? And the idea is that maybe confabulation happens when someone is wounded because that second part isn't working quite right. So the creative part is working just fine, but that part that says, actually, this is a thing that I am uncertain of, that part isn't working.
You look like the kind of researcher who would throw a ball at me, and so I just-- I knew it was coming. They'll have reasons that confabulate a little bit. But they really don't know why.
I suspect many of our audience members right now and viewers are also interacting with AI on a regular basis. I found it really fascinating throughout the book your explorations on confabulation particularly. So hallucination, or more accurately, confabulation, is such a big part of the world that I live in in the AI space,
And not just the naming of that but the study and how we think about that is also very rooted in the history of neurology and the study of the brain. I would love if you could explain what confabulation is in the human brain, what purpose it serves, and what you think its existence might reveal about us as people. So, yes. So confabulation is this really fascinating and perplexing symptom that many people experience when they have some sort of wound to their brain.
I'm wearing the helmet because I'm going to play in the big game later today, all of these things that were composted from his personal story that found their way into these confabulations. So confabulation is shockingly common.
And I think that applies to how we think about illness as well, is that we're often searching for a story to make sense of it, and I think that's a form of confabulation. We've talked about this before, but I think-- you shared that you think a lot of people complain that AI is a black box.
causes someone to confabulate. And it depends a little bit on what kind of confabulations they're experiencing. But part of it is that in the human brain, there's the creative part of your brain that comes up with a story.
And that is really valuable information about how the human brain is structured, although it still is very much a black box. We're hopefully inching closer by being attentive to glitches like confabulation. Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, why do you think those glitches have become
and how language is uniquely privileged in the brain compared to other cognitive functions. And we've learned something about the human impulse for storytelling from confabulation, so what unmasks it. Confabulation, there are many different-- among many black box aspects of the human brain, I think we still have yet to fully understand what
So it's like a moment where you can pry open that black box, and something is illuminated about how that works when it's functioning. Like, the fact that people confabulate, that tells us something about our impulse for storytelling even when we're not wounded or when we're not confabulating. And I think it's interesting.
there in the first place. So what we're very good at and our brains are very good at is filling in the holes, what I call the lacunae. Neurologists call it confabulation. So where there's a hole in your memory, just like a blind spot, the brain will fill it in with something.
even appreciating that we're doing that retrospectively we may figure out oh there was a good reason for that and of course sometimes we confabulate sometimes on purpose how many of you have ever made a move in a chess game which only later you realized was a brilliant
ourselves all we've got to go on are these sort of little sparkles and flashes of stimulation that that impinge on us at the periphery and the world itself is this unknown kind of confabulation and I want to suggest that actually that view that sort of alienated picture of our nature is not one which is supported by the science it's one which for kind of acts
I found it really fascinating throughout the book your explorations on confabulation particularly. So hallucination, or more accurately, confabulation, is such a big part of the world that I live in in the AI space, dealing with large language models as well.
I would love if you could explain what confabulation is in the human brain, what purpose it serves, and what you think its existence might reveal about us as people. So, yes. So confabulation is this really fascinating and perplexing symptom that many people experience when they have some sort of wound to their brain. So what confabulation is is it's your brain's desire to tell a story beyond your conscious perception.
So the creative part is working just fine, but that part that says, actually, this is a thing that I am uncertain of, that part isn't working. And so the ability to acknowledge your own uncertainty is part of what's broken when someone confabulates. And that is really valuable information about how the human brain is structured, although it still is very much a black box.
And I think it's interesting. I think people talk about-- I feel like in the press, there's this idea that AI confabulations or hallucinations are the reason that this particular technology is flawed or doesn't have a value.