Yours truly, on the pattern-based bullshit of AI chatbots:

Our acceptance of this BS as truth is dictated both by our knowledge of the topic at hand and our personal level of skepticism.

My friend (and former colleague) Thaddeus Cooper, after spending multiple hours querying ChatGPT about the history of Skee-Ball:

So far, ChatGPT has:

• misidentified the inventor of Skee-Ball
• created references to a non-existant game called Newcomb’s Parlor Table
• incorrectly identified the authors of “Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball”
• stated that the book “Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball” contains a section talking about Newcomb’s Parlor Table, which it doesn’t
• invented two articles that never existed AND provided fake links to those articles
• and finally, it produced a third article and attributed the website to the American Skee-Ball League (which doesn’t exist) in supporting evidence of Newcomb’s Parlor Table.

Thad’s conclusion:

This lengthy interaction shows that it will make up information at will and present it as fact. And, when asked to produce a source it will fabricate one for the fake information. The AI researchers have a name for this. They call it hallucinating. Frankly I call it lying.

ChatGPT picked the worst person to lie to about Skee-Ball. Thad is the co-author of Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball, a “464 page tome” about the game. There may be no one on the planet more knowledgeable about its history.