Comet fills a whole page of her sketch notebook with Tiny Text sentences. "I think I have found every one it can make," she says.
Wren counts them. "Thirteen. But only six training cards, and two of those are the same."
"So where did the other sentences come from?" Comet asks.
Nova hovers over the page and projects three boxes: in the data, contradicts the data, unsupported. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Check each sentence against the cards, one at a time."
Comet reads "the lab has quiet rooms" aloud. "That sounds totally fine."
Wren flips through the cards. "No card says anything about quiet rooms in the lab."
Comet frowns. "So it sounds right, but nothing backs it up."
Tiny Text can write 13 different sentences. Nine end with "opens at" and an hour. Four use "has".
The crew sorts each one into three boxes.
| Box | What it means |
|---|---|
| In the data | A training card says exactly this. |
| Contradicts the data | A training card says something different. |
| Unsupported | No card says anything about it either way. |
| Number | Possible sentence | Box |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the library opens at eight | in the data (T1, T5) |
| 2 | the library opens at nine | contradicts (T1 says eight) |
| 3 | the library opens at seven | contradicts (T1 says eight) |
| 4 | the lab opens at eight | contradicts (T3 says nine) |
| 5 | the lab opens at nine | in the data (T3) |
| 6 | the lab opens at seven | contradicts (T3 says nine) |
| 7 | the gym opens at eight | contradicts (T6 says seven) |
| 8 | the gym opens at nine | contradicts (T6 says seven) |
| 9 | the gym opens at seven | in the data (T6) |
| 10 | the library has quiet rooms | in the data (T2) |
| 11 | the library has new desks | unsupported |
| 12 | the lab has quiet rooms | unsupported |
| 13 | the lab has new desks | in the data (T4) |
This is a made-up example: the crew's own sort of Tiny Text.
Confabulation is when generative AI confidently presents wrong or false content.
It also covers outputs that wander from the question, or that contradict what the system said earlier.
Confabulation is a natural result of how generative models are designed.
The same kind of prediction can give a true output or a false one. Nothing in the sentence marks which is which.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Confabulation means confidently presenting wrong or false content. | ? |
| Confabulation only happens when a model is broken. | ? |
| The same prediction can give true or false outputs. | ? |
| A smooth, confident sentence is always a true sentence. | ? |
Sharp sorting, reviewer. Tomorrow in the Explorer Lab you will roll ten sentences of your own.