An interesting perspective on this I’ve heard discussed is whether hallucinations ought to be solved at all, or whether they are core to the way human intelligence works as well, in the sense that that is what is needed to produce narratives.

I believe it is Hinton that prefers “confabulation” to “hallucination” because it’s more accurate. The example in the discussion about hallucination/confabulation was that of someone who had been present in the room during Nixon’s Watergate conversations. Interviewed about what he heard, he provided a narrative that got many facts wrong (who said what, and what exactly was said). Later, when audio tapes surfaced, the inaccuracies in his testimony became known. However, he had “confabulated truthfully”. That is, he had made up a narrative that fit his recall as best as he was able, and the gist of it was true.

Without the ability to confabulate, he would have been unable to tell his story.

(Incidentally, because I did not check the facts of what I just recounted, I just did the same thing…)