VOA科学技术2023--Can AI Chatbots Learn to Be More Truthful?

Can AI Chatbots Learn to Be More Truthful¹?

Newly-developed artificial intelligence (AI) systems have demonstrated the ability to perform at human-like levels in some areas. But one serious problem with the tools remains² – they can produce false or harmful information repeatedly.

The development of such systems, known as "chatbots," has progressed greatly in recent months. Chatbots have shown the ability to interact smoothly³ with humans and produce complex writing based on short, written commands. Such tools are also known as "generative AI" or "large language models."

Chatbots are one of many different AI systems currently under development. Others include tools that can produce new images, video and music or can write computer programs. As the technology continues to progress, some experts worry that AI tools may never be able to learn how to avoid false, outdated⁴ or damaging results.

The term hallucination has been used to describe when chatbots produce inaccurate⁵ or false information. Generally, hallucination describes something that is created in a person's mind, but is not happening in real life.

Daniela Amodei is co-creator and president of Anthropic, a company that produced a chatbot called Claude 2. She told the Associated Press, "I don't think that there's any model today that doesn't suffer from some hallucination."

Amodei added that such tools are largely built "to predict the next word." With this kind of design, she said, there will always be times when the model gets information or context wrong.

Anthropic, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and other major developers of such AI systems say they are working to make AI tools that make fewer mistakes. Some experts question how long that process will take or if success is even possible.

"This isn't fixable," says Professor Emily Bender. She is a language expert and director of the University of Washington's Computational Linguistics⁶ Laboratory. Bender told the AP she considers the general relationship between AI tools and proposed uses of the technology a "mismatch."

Indian computer scientist Ganesh Bagler has been working for years to get AI systems to create recipes for South Asian foods. He said a chatbot can generate misinformation in the food industry that could hurt a food business. A single "hallucinated" recipe element could be the difference between a tasty meal or a terrible one.

Bagler questioned OpenAI chief Sam Altman during an event on AI technology held in India in June. "I guess hallucinations in ChatGPT are still acceptable, but when a recipe comes out hallucinating, it becomes a serious problem," Bagler said.

Altman answered by saying he was sure developers of AI chatbots would be able to get "the hallucination problem to a much, much better place" in the future. But he noted⁷ such progress could take years. "At that point we won't still talk about these," Altman said. "There's a balance between creativity and perfect accuracy, and the model will need to learn when you want one or the other."

Other experts who have long studied the technology say they do not expect such improvements to happen anytime soon.

The University of Washington's Bender describes a language model as a system that has been trained on written data to "model the likelihood of different strings⁸ of word forms." Many people depend on a version of this technology whenever they use the "autocomplete" tool when writing text messages or emails.

The latest chatbot tools try to take that method to the next level, by generating whole new passages of text. But Bender says the systems are still just repeatedly choosing the most predictable next word in a series. Such language models "are designed to make things up. That's all they do," she noted.

Some businesses, however, are not so worried about the ways current chatbot tools generate their results. Shane Orlick is head of marketing⁹ technology company Jasper AI. He told the AP, "Hallucinations are actually an added bonus." He explained many chatbot users were pleased that the company's AI tool had "created takes on stories or angles that they would have never thought of themselves."

Words in This Story

generate – v. to produce something

inaccurate – adj. not correct or exact

context – n. all the facts, opinions, situations, etc. relating to a particular thing or event

mismatch – n. a situation when people or things are put together but are not suitable for each other

recipe – n. a set of instructions and ingredients for preparing a particular food dish

bonus – n. a pleasant extra thing

angle – n. a position from which something is looked at

1 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

4 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

5 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

6 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。