Editing Why AI Gets Things Wrong (section)

== Why it ''sounds'' so confident ==

This is the part that trips people up. When a human says something confidently, you assume they believe it and probably have some basis for it. When AI says something confidently, it means nothing — confidence is the default mode.

The model isn't more certain about accurate statements than inaccurate ones. It generates all text with the same fluent, authoritative tone because that's the pattern in its training data. Well-written text sounds confident. The model produces well-written text. Therefore, everything it produces sounds confident — including the wrong things.

This is why the philosopher Harry Frankfurt's essay "On Bullshit" is on our [[Further Reading|Further Reading]] page. Frankfurt distinguishes between lying (knowing the truth and hiding it) and bullshitting (not caring whether something is true). AI is, technically, the world's most sophisticated bullshit generator. Not because it's trying to deceive you, but because truth and falsehood aren't categories it operates in. It operates in plausibility.