Anyathakhyati
Anyathakhyati (anyatha means "the other") or misapprehension is the theory of nyaya-vaisesika school systematized by Sage Gautama in his nyaya sutras.
When one sees a shell and mistakes it for silver, according to Gautama, it is not because of non-apprehension, but because of misapprehension. The shine of the shell is mapped in his chitta with the "silverness" of silver, which is a real object he has seen earlier.
The eye sees the shell that is clearly in the front, but the memory somehow interferes with the visual percept, resulting in the cognition that what is in front is silver. The justification given is that the attributes of shell such as shine and gleam rise up in the memory in the form of silver. Since one can only perceive what is in front with an indriya, but not the memory, one is under the illusion that what is in front is real silver.
The assumption is one has seen real silver elsewhere in the past. But what is in front is not real. To generalize this: when what is perceived by an indriya reminds one of a past encounter with a real thing, because of their shared attributes, then one could be under an illusion. In other words, one must have seen the real thing (silver) to be reminded. So in a general situation, one needs extra-sensory input or omniscience to remove every misapprehension. Also there is the implicit assumption that the indriya is free of defects which is not always the case.
A neural net, in the modern context, is trained to recognize patterns before it can be put to any good use in a predictive mode. In this regard, the AI could be trained with bright pictures of metallic things. In a predictive mode, when presented with an image of a shell, the AI can output several metals with various probabilities. The answer with the highest probability will be chosen.
If the AI doesn't have a prediction then it is non-apprehension. Since we have programmed AI to provide an answer and no-answer is not acceptable, its outcome is misapprehension because shell is not metallic or part of the training set.
For the naiyayikas, truth results in useful activity (arthakriyakaritva) and cognition is deemed erroneous when it proves inexpedient in practice. So if one reaches for silver and finds shell, the illusion is falsified by subsequent experience such as trying to make an ornament out of it.
