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This represents a milestone for higher education. Just from that sentence, you know the paper is suspect. Whatever the merits of the algorithm -- there's no r
by vanusa 5y ago
This represents a milestone for higher education.
Just from that sentence, you know the paper is suspect.
Whatever the merits of the algorithm -- there's no reason to be believe that what it produces (a set of random auto-generated questions) will be useful for actual education in any way.
There are more red flags -- see autogen question U9, for example:
If f(x) = (x^2 - x) / (x^2 + x), what is f(2)?
When was the last time your human teacher (at university level) handed you a rational polynomial that was not in reduced terms?
And my favorite, X7:
Find the smallest prime number that is divisible by 7 and 13.
- andi999 5y agoX7 is pure gold.
- dane-pgp 5y ago> Find the smallest prime number that is divisible by 7 and 13. A truly intelligent machine would parse that question as: Find `the smallest prime number that is divisible by 7` and `13`. then answer with the correct set of integers: 7 and 13
- vanusa 5y agoIt wouldn't, because in English as in programming -- the 'and' operator has precedence.
- kzrdude 5y agoit's an intelligence so it can make sense of it to the best of its ability, even if the input is malformed. :)
- vanusa 5y agoA truly intelligent machine would hand the test back to the instructor, saying: "Nice try, but I think you need to edit these questions a bit more carefully. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to treat myself to an early recess."
- kzrdude 5y agoIntelligent students know that it doesn't work to try this on the teacher, so it sounds like the machine still isn't quite AGI :)
- c1ccccc1 5y agoSo I guess the answer would be 5 then. 7 & 13 = 0b0111 & 0b1101 = 0b0101 = 5
- Jensson 5y agoIn python 7 and 13 is 13. 7 is true, so it returns the second part of the and statement which is 13. So the answer is 13. Code below as proof: > print(13 % (7 and 13)) outputs: 0.
- vanusa 5y agoI was wrong! I failed FizzBuzz! The English 'and' doesn't have the same precedence as in software - it actually goes in the opposite direction. What it does in English is this: Find the smallest prime number that ( (is divisible by 7) and (is divisible by 13) ) The point I was trying to make was is: the English meaning of this sentence is unambiguous. And it's obvious the algorithm here in no way understands this meaning. It's just dissecting parse trees, and hitting the shuffle button.
- gus_massa 5y agoHere in Buenos Aires, for calculus for the first year of the university, we use to ask something like: > Find all the horizontal and vertical asymptotes of f(x) = (x^2 - x) / (x^2 + x) Probably one half of the exams get a rational function that is simplificable, and the other half get a surprise in other exercise.
- vanusa 5y agoYeah, I can see how surprise formulations like these can be useful. The thing is, it almost certainly wasn't ntended by the algorithm in this case. Nor does the it seem to have any understanding of what may be "off" about problem statement like these.
- maxwell86 5y ago> Find the smallest prime number that is divisible by 7 and 13. So what did the model answer?
- tsimionescu 5y agoThe model generated this as a question that the MIT undergrad Number Theory course could ask of its human students - helping develop the course is part of their goal. It's a laughably easy question at first glance, though.