Hallucinations present a significant challenge in the development and evaluation of large language models (LLMs), directly affecting their reliability and accuracy. While notable advancements have been made in research on textual and visual hallucinations, there is still a lack of a comprehensive benchmark for evaluating auditory hallucinations in large audio language models (LALMs).

A trio of researchers have developed an experimental machine learning method that allows AI to listen for the early whispers of psychotic break that humans can't hear. The team, consisting of Neguine Rezaii of Harvard Medical School and Emory School of Medicine, and Elaine Walker and Philipp Wolff from Emory University's Department of Psychology, set out to see if there was any way to use language as an indicator of impending latent onset psychosis. They developed a machine learning method that looks for specific indicators long thought associated with psychosis, especially schizophrenia. The team then spent two years observing study volunteers, a significant portion of whom ended up demonstrating psychotic break (the first experience of a fully psychotic episode). The results of the study were incredible. The team not only determined their tool could experimentally predict psychotic break with higher-than-human accuracy, but also discovered a new indicator of impending psychotic break.

An experimental therapy for people with schizophrenia that brings them face to face with a computer avatar representing the tormenting voices in their heads has proved promising in early stage trials. Scientists who conducted a randomised controlled trial comparing the avatar therapy to a form of supportive counselling found that after 12 weeks, the avatars were more effective at reducing auditory hallucinations, or voices inside the head. More research is needed to investigate the approach in other healthcare settings, so the therapy is not yet widely available. But if further trials prove successful, experts said, avatar therapy could'radically change' treatment approaches for millions of psychosis sufferers across the world. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects around one in 100 people worldwide.

LONDON – An experimental therapy for people with schizophrenia that brings them face-to-face with a computer avatar representing the tormenting voices in their heads has proved promising in early stage trials. Scientists who conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing the avatar therapy to a form of supportive counseling found that after 12 weeks, the avatars were more effective at reducing auditory hallucinations, or voices inside the head. More research is needed to investigate the approach in other health care settings, so the therapy is not yet widely available. But if further trials prove successful, experts said, avatar therapy could "radically change" treatment approaches for millions of psychosis sufferers across the world. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects around one in 100 people worldwide.

Serial killer David Berkowitz, also known as the "Son of Sam," famously claimed that he heard voices in the form of a dog telling him to commit murder. In fact, according to the authors of a recent study published in the journal Brain, enhanced attention-related nerual pathways might cause these illusory sounds. People hear them because their brains may be especially primed to pick up speech. "It's true that lots of people who hear voices have serious mental health issues," Ben Alderson-Day, a psychological research at Durham University and lead author on the study told Popular Science. "But roughly 5 to 15 percent of the general population will have some experience of hearing unusual voices at some point in their lives. We think potentially up to one percent might have pretty frequent experiences and just don't really tell anyone and get on with their everyday lives."

I was electrified by Jonathan Berger's music before I knew he wrote about music. His chamber works arise out of a lightning storm of modernist angles, dramatic and startling, though anchored to melodies that sail like a swallow, as one of his string quartets is called. His one-act operas Theotokia and The War Reporter, performed together in concert, match taut musical brocades to the hallucinations of, respectively, a schizophrenic, hearing voices of various mothers, and a photojournalist, based on Paul Watson, who won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for his image of the corpse of an American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. A few years ago, I read some of Jonathan's academic writing about music, which had a sharp focus on neurology and acoustics. He is a professor of music at Stanford, where he teaches composition, music theory, and cognition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. On a hunch that he could connect with a popular audience, I asked him to write an essay for Nautilus about how composers upend expectations to keep listeners off guard and engaged. That article, "Composing Your Thoughts," and his next one for Nautilus, "How Music Hijacks Our Perception of Time," which contain musical clips to illustrate his points, have been among our most popular articles. There's a certain amount of problem solving that happens in the context of a band of noise. For this month's issue I called Jonathan and was delighted to learn he had thought a lot about noise.