3 ms·

(for the record, the editorialized title that will likely get changed is right now: "Before you believe the ChatGPT hype, ask it something you know well") Even

(for the record, the editorialized title that will likely get changed is right now: "Before you believe the ChatGPT hype, ask it something you know well") Even better: ask it something you just made up. For GPT, there's no real difference and you shouldn't expect any.

drpixie 4y ago
... except it will be difficult to judge the correctness of something you make up - better to ask it something you know, so you can evaluate the meaning, not just the wording.
- seba_dos1 4y ago
  The idea of that exercise is to see how "confident" the AI is in giving you a correct-sounding answer for something it can not have any knowledge of because you just made it up - and to realize that it's doing the very same thing with any other topic unless its statistical models happen to nudge it into using memorized facts to increase the likelihood of sounding correct. I think it gives you more insight into what GPT actually is than just seeing it being wrong about something you're knowledgeable in (which shouldn't really be surprising).
  - twelve40 4y ago
    haha siri at least had the modesty to say "i don't know" sometimes
bloaf 4y ago
Kids are like that too. There was some study that found ~50% of kids thought french fries were made from animals. The correct conclusion is not that 50% of kids are dumb and 50% smart. Actually, none of the kids knew but they had a 50% chance of picking the right answer at random. Knowing what you don't know is an "advanced" skill many adults haven't even mastered. I'm not at all surprised chatGPT struggles to not-answer questions on things you just made up.
- dorkwood 4y ago
  > The correct conclusion is not that 50% of kids are dumb and 50% smart. Actually, none of the kids knew but they had a 50% chance of picking the right answer at random. I can remember being a child and having this belief, but it wasn’t based on a guess. To me, it was logical. I thought that because fish and chips accompanied each other on the plate, they probably also accompanied each other in the sea. I can distinctly remember picturing fries swimming around with fish, in what I imagined to be their natural habitat.

drpixie 4y ago

... except it will be difficult to judge the correctness of something you make up - better to ask it something you know, so you can evaluate the meaning, not just the wording.

seba_dos1 4y ago
The idea of that exercise is to see how "confident" the AI is in giving you a correct-sounding answer for something it can not have any knowledge of because you just made it up - and to realize that it's doing the very same thing with any other topic unless its statistical models happen to nudge it into using memorized facts to increase the likelihood of sounding correct. I think it gives you more insight into what GPT actually is than just seeing it being wrong about something you're knowledgeable in (which shouldn't really be surprising).
- twelve40 4y ago
  haha siri at least had the modesty to say "i don't know" sometimes

bloaf 4y ago

Kids are like that too. There was some study that found ~50% of kids thought french fries were made from animals. The correct conclusion is not that 50% of kids are dumb and 50% smart. Actually, none of the kids knew but they had a 50% chance of picking the right answer at random. Knowing what you don't know is an "advanced" skill many adults haven't even mastered. I'm not at all surprised chatGPT struggles to not-answer questions on things you just made up.

dorkwood 4y ago
> The correct conclusion is not that 50% of kids are dumb and 50% smart. Actually, none of the kids knew but they had a 50% chance of picking the right answer at random. I can remember being a child and having this belief, but it wasn’t based on a guess. To me, it was logical. I thought that because fish and chips accompanied each other on the plate, they probably also accompanied each other in the sea. I can distinctly remember picturing fries swimming around with fish, in what I imagined to be their natural habitat.