By Andre Spivey | Global Cyber Education Forum (GCEF.io)
When artificial intelligence generates false or misleading information, we call it a “hallucination.”
But step back for a moment — don’t humans do something very similar?
From confidently recalling false memories to guessing answers in conversations, the human brain also fills in gaps when data is missing. The difference is that when we do it, it’s often psychological. When AI does it, it’s computational. Yet both are driven by the same core impulse: to make sense of incomplete information.
1. The Human Hallucination: When Memory Becomes a Story
The human mind is a master storyteller.
Even when information is incomplete, we subconsciously connect the dots to maintain a sense of order and understanding.
Psychologists call this confabulation — the brain’s natural tendency to fill in blanks in our memory or perception with fabricated, but believable, details.
Consider:
- You “remember” a childhood event differently than your sibling.
- You confidently give an answer at work even when unsure.
- You swear you saw someone in a red shirt, but they were wearing blue.
None of these acts are necessarily lies. They’re examples of how our cognition prioritizes coherence over accuracy.
We prefer a complete narrative — even if it’s slightly false — to the discomfort of uncertainty.
2. The AI Hallucination: When Algorithms Overcomplete
AI systems, particularly large language models like GPT, are built to predict the most likely next word or pattern based on previous data. When the data is missing or ambiguous, they don’t stop — they fill the gap.
That’s why a chatbot might confidently invent:
- A research paper that doesn’t exist.
- A false historical fact.
- A person’s biography that’s a mix of truth and fiction.
AI doesn’t “intend” to deceive — it simply does what it was designed to do: generate coherence from context.
It lacks the capacity for awareness or truth-checking outside of statistical likelihoods.
3. Shared Traits: Why Humans and AI Both “Hallucinate”
Trait Humans AI
Reason for falsehoods -To create meaning or social continuity -To create linguistic or contextual continuity
Mechanism - Memory reconstruction, pattern completion - Probability-based prediction
Confidence - High — we believe our own stories - High — authoritative AI outputs
Correction process - Reflection, learning, humility - Model retraining/factual ground
Both systems — biological and artificial — operate under the principle that continuity is better than confusion.
Where humans fill in blanks to preserve social coherence, AI fills in blanks to preserve linguistic coherence.
4. But When Humans Lie, It’s Different
The crucial difference is intent.
A lie involves knowing the truth and deliberately stating something false to mislead. Humans are capable of that because we possess:
- Awareness of truth versus falsehood
- Moral understanding of right and wrong
- Intent — the will to manipulate or protect
AI, however, has none of these. It doesn’t know it’s wrong, it doesn’t intend to deceive, and it has no moral compass.
Its “hallucination” is a byproduct of pattern completion, not moral failure.
In that sense:
A human lie is ethical. An AI hallucination is technical.
5. Why This Difference Matters
Understanding this distinction is critical for AI governance, education, and trust.
- For developers: The solution to hallucination isn’t punishment — it’s engineering. Ground models in verifiable data sources and design human-in-the-loop checks.
- For users: The solution isn’t blind trust or cynicism — it’s literacy. Know that confidence doesn’t equal correctness, whether it’s from a person or a machine.
- For society: The key isn’t fearing AI for being human-like — it’s realizing it mirrors our own cognitive flaws, without the self-awareness to fix them.
Final Thought: Mirrors of the Mind
In many ways, AI is teaching us more about ourselves than about machines.
When we see it confidently generate falsehoods, we’re not just seeing the failure of code — we’re seeing the reflection of a human trait: our desire to make sense of chaos.
Both humans and AI hallucinate because both are built — biologically or digitally — to complete the picture.
But only one can choose to lie.