Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Dall-E have gained a reputation for giving out information that appears plausible but is actually completely false, a phenomenon researchers call an AI hallucination.

This is "both a strength and a weakness", said Nature. While it fuels their "celebrated" inventiveness, it also leads them to "sometimes blur truth and fiction".

What are AI hallucinations?
The type of hallucination AIs generate depends on the system. Large language models like ChatGPT are "sophisticated pattern predictors", said TechRadar, generating text by making predictions based on what word statistically follows the previous one.

Hallucinations occur when the system isn't sure about a question or answer and fills in the gaps based on similar examples it has been given. "Rather than admitting uncertainty, many AI tools default to producing an answer – whether it's right or not."

What happens when AI is wrong?
Incorrect answers can have serious consequences. In 2023, American lawyer Steven Schwartz was fined after using ChatGPT to help him write a legal brief to submit in court. But instead of finding legal precedents that would help his argument, the AI made up some cases and misidentified others.

ChatGPT's hallucinations may also spell trouble for its maker, OpenAI. This month, Norwegian Arve Hjalmar Holmen filed a complaint against the company after the chatbot falsely claimed he had killed two of his children. Digital rights group Noyb, acting on Holmen's behalf, said OpenAI had violated data accuracy rules by "knowingly allowing ChatGPT to produce defamatory results".

Can you stop AI hallucinations?
Hallucinations are key to how large language models work, which could make it impossible to eliminate them completely. Companies should be able to reduce them, though. They can check for inaccuracies in the original material and ensure the AI has access to more up-to-date external information.

Another option is automated reasoning to fact-check answers straight away, a system Amazon introduced to its generative AI offerings last December. Rather than guessing an answer, automated reasoning uses logic and problem-solving techniques to check its validity.

Until a solution is found, hallucinations will remain an "inherent challenge" for large language models, said TechRadar. The answer? "Fact-check everything."

Country weddings in idyllic settings are causing rising levels of angry complaints from locals about noise, parking and pollution. 

Once "imbued with notions of flowers and smiles, romantic love and happy families", the wedding reception trade is now "drawing short shrift" from those who live in "bucolic country spots", said The Telegraph.

The "returns are big" for the hotels and stately homes that host weddings: last year, UK couples paid an average of £23,250 to get spliced. And now more property owners are throwing open their doors to cash in on the celebrations. But a "chorus of nuptial nimbys" are increasingly contacting local councils about the disruption they bring.

'Disney on our doorstep'
Jigsaw fashion tycoon John Robinson is currently "locked in a bitter planning battle" with Wiltshire Council over Euridge Manor, his 450-acre Cotswolds estate, said the Daily Mail. "Locals say they are fed up of out-of-towners bringing chaos." Wedding season at the venue, which hosted the nuptials of "Poldark" star Eleanor Tomlinson, was like "having a Disney theme park on our doorstep", one neighbour told The Telegraph.

In Cumbria, Cumberland Council has told the owners of Dalston Hall that wedding parties will need to be moved inside from this spring, due to objections from neighbours about noise coming from marquees. And Accrington Stanley Football Club in Lancashire recently lost the right to host weddings and other functions after complaints from neighbours.

'Communication is the key'
King Charles is rumoured to have bought a £3 million house next door to his wife's 17-acre countryside retreat "after fears it would be sold and turned into a wedding venue", said the Salisbury Journal. The Old Mill is next door to the Queen's Ray Mill House, bought after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles reportedly stepped in to buy the neighbouring property with his own funds.

The royals are clearly "far from being alone in their concerns over the raucous scenes that weddings can bring", said the Mail. It has prompted some venues, such as Oxnead Hall, to impose "strict controls over noise" and to hire "security guards to keep guests from straying". Venue manager Francis Guildea told the paper that as a rural venue they "genuinely want to have a good relationship" with the locals. "Communication is the key."

With alcohol consumption on a downward trend, many bars have been expanding their range of booze-free tipples. But there is another option, said The Telegraph: "just make the cocktails smaller". Instead of offering only "great vats" of margarita or negroni, bars are "discovering the allure" of downsized drinks.

Varying in size from "a shot to a few sips", tiny cocktails have become a "staple" of drinks menus up and down the country – from the "snaquiri" (miniature daiquiri) at Manchester's Blinker Bar to the "mouthful of clementine gimlet" on offer at Oma in London's Borough Market, said Vogue.

Aimed at drinkers who want to "keep a clearer head" while cutting the cost of a night out, "scaled-down" cocktails make a lot of sense in the current climate, said The Guardian. Normal martinis have a high price point, whereas smaller versions can start "from as little as £4". It might feel like a new idea, but actually it's only in modern times that glass sizes have "ballooned". Historically, cocktail glasses were almost "pocket-sized".

At Rita's Bar in London's Soho, mini martinis "hover around the 100ml mark" and are designed to be finished in a few sips. They're served with a skewer of olive, blue cheese, anchovy and jalapeño.

The "abstemious Gen Z crowd" have "brought back the shot" with a "twist", said Metro. This is very different from the "sticky" glasses of sambuca that millennials were "knocking back" in the noughties. Instead, younger drinkers are looking for mini versions of their favourite cocktails with complex flavours and top-quality ingredients. "Like speed-dating for their taste buds."

And if you happen to enjoy the "small serving", said The Telegraph, "you can always get another one".

We must learn to let people offend each other
Trevor Phillips in The Times
For freedom of expression to "mean anything", it "must apply" to "those we most dislike and disagree with", writes Trevor Phillips. "Offence should not be a test of free speech" and "I balk at the idea" that people can be "legally sanctioned for bad and emotionally abusive language". We must "expunge the stain of cowardice" in "Britain's intellectual life" and "learn to let people offend each other a little more".

I refuse to see a male doctor unless there's no other option
Punteha van Terheyden in Metro
A physician's assistant told me "my name was 'sexy'", writes Punteha van Terheyden. I'd gone to the GP surgery for a gynaecological complaint, so that "only amplified" my embarrassment. As a "disabled woman, chronically ill", my medical needs are "higher than most" and I've recently sensed "a negative shift in attitude" from male medics. Women "are being badly let down" while "medical misogyny is dancing around, laughing in our faces".

Your call is important to us… please hold
Miranda Green in the Financial Times
We all know how customer service "wrangling" goes, writes Miranda Green. "'Your call is important to us'", followed by "loops of Coldplay" and an "incomprehensible" list of buttons to press. We Brits spend up to 41 minutes a week "hanging on in quiet desperation", a report says. It's "eating chunks" out of our "productive hours". That "quiet desperation" is "turning to political disaffection" that risks voters hanging up "on the whole system".