When generative AI systems give incorrect answers, people often describe the problem as AI "hallucinating at us," meaning the technology produces false information that users may mistakenly believe.
But new research suggests there may be a more concerning issue emerging: humans can begin to "hallucinate with AI."
Lucy Osler of the University of Exeter examined how interactions with conversational AI could contribute to false beliefs, distorted memories, altered personal narratives, and even delusional thinking. Using ideas from distributed cognition theory, the study explored cases in which AI systems reinforced and expanded users' inaccurate beliefs during ongoing conversations.
Dr. Osler said: "When we routinely rely on generative AI to help us think, remember, and narrate, we can hallucinate with AI. This can happen when AI introduces errors into the distributed cognitive process, but also happen when AI sustains, affirms, and elaborates on our own delusional thinking and self-narratives.
"By interacting with conversational AI, people's own false beliefs can not only be affirmed but can more substantially take root and grow as the AI builds upon them. This happens because Generative AI often takes our own interpretation of reality as the ground upon which conversation is built.
