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This is a very interesting application of WolframAlpha but it appears to be purely luck when "success" was the result. Using things such as "2nd item in a..."
by notyourwork 16y ago
This is a very interesting application of WolframAlpha but it appears to be purely luck when "success" was the result. Using things such as "2nd item in a..." or "7th digit in..." work in a lot of cases but lets talk about a few.
"2nd fruit in bear apple goat orange" would result in apple because it is looking for second in a list and neglects context of fruit.
"7th digit in abc123def456ghi789 " would result in d when it should be 7. Again not understanding context and merely looking at logical construction.
- joelvh 16y agoRight. And as a little experiment, it was surprising the results I got. It also implies that it is not hard to structure the sentences in a way that makes it harder for WolframAlpha's algorithms to get the right answer. But doing that for 180 million questions? I wonder what the percentage of success using only WolframAlpha would be on the whole data set.
- pygy_ 16y ago> "2nd fruit in bear apple goat orange"[1], "7th digit in abc123def456ghi789"[2] It barfs on these ones, but not like you predict (it's actually worse). "The 2nd colour in purple, belly, yellow, arm, white and blue"[3] gives back yellow, though, so it's not that stupid. [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+fruit+in+bear+apple+goat+orange http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+fruit+in+bear+a... [2] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7th+digit+in+abc123def456ghi789 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7th+digit+in+abc123def4... [3] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+colour+in+purple,+belly,+yellow,+arm,+white+and+blue+ http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+colour+in+purpl...
- mquander 16y agoOh, not that stupid, huh? Query: The 2nd colour in purple, belly, yellow, arm, white and blue Answer: yellow Query: The 3rd colour in purple, belly, yellow, arm, white and blue Answer: yellow Query: The 7th colour in purple, belly, yellow, arm, white and blue Answer: yellow Query: The bluest colour in purple, belly, yellow, arm, white and blue Answer: yellow :-)
- joelvh 16y agoHaha.
- VeXocide 16y agoI wonder what its favorite colour is ;-)
- MarcusAurelius 16y agoTry it: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=what+is+your+favorite+color%3F http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=what+is+your+favorite+c...
- moeffju 16y agoThat's according to Python. Ask about the favorite color of Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=what+is+your+favorite+color%3F&a=*DPClash.MiscellaneousE.what+is+your+favorite+color-_*WhatIsYourFavoriteColorWolframAlpha- http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=what+is+your+favorite+c...
- ahlatimer 16y agoIf you change yellow to silver, it gives you "colour silver," but if you look at the assumptions, it assumes silver is an element. Clearly it's not really getting the meaning of the sentence, and the fact that it's picking "yellow" is mostly coincidental, I think, as is also illustrated by your examples. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+colour+in+blue,+belly,+silver,+arm,+white+and+blue+ http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=The+2nd+colour+in+blue,...
- kevindication 16y agoI immediately wondered the same thing. An example from their questions was: Q: "Which word contains “z” from the list: zoologist, midwifery, spiderweb, crimps?" A: "zoologist" But what if you change up that list a bit? Q: "Which word contains “z” from the list: action, jackson, midwifery, zoologist, spiderweb, crimps?" A: "jackson" Alpha's sentence digestion has always left me going: huh?