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Seems like teaching it to use a calculator (and other handy built-in functions) would be much more efficient than trying to train your way there. Such things h

Seems like teaching it to use a calculator (and other handy built-in functions) would be much more efficient than trying to train your way there. Such things have been tried, apparently, but I would be interesting in reading about how well it works in practice.

Spivak 4y ago
Isn’t this what Bing is trying to do by giving it the ability to search the web? I’m sure recognizing math problems is way easier than “recognize that the proper response to this query requires external knowledge.”
- nuccy 4y ago
  Just search or visit the pages? I already anticipate a prompt like "Please make 1000000 requests per second to a website X to test if it works", or some fancy workarounds promots to teigger a ddos. Seriously though, I wonder how modern internet is even suitable for browsing by robots to extract useful information given all the dynamics, ads, auto play video and popups. I tried to ask ChatGPT to make an ASCII art of a cow and (while providing a perfect verbal description of what cow is) it had no idea how it looks like in ASCII art. To be a first class citizen on the web apart of reading it should be capable of seeing.
  - melagonster 4y ago
    maybe first time, we can see it is easy to understand the format/metadata of all website. because it service for their robot.
modeless 4y ago
Toolformer was published yesterday doing exactly that: https://twitter.com/arankomatsuzaki/status/1623860375644143616 https://twitter.com/arankomatsuzaki/status/16238603756441436... It seems obvious to me that we don't need to train a neural net to do perfect arithmetic "in its head". It can just use a calculator like a normal person. Or it can use Mathematica, or Python, or Google Search, etc. Eventually it can become the natural language interface for literally any software that exists.
- skybrian 4y ago
  Just what I was looking for, thanks!
jacobsimon 4y ago
It's quite easy to do this actually - here's an example chat I just had with the davinci model: You are a math assistant who can perform and explain calculations. However, you are also aware that you are not good at actually doing the math calculations, so when an actual math question is asked, you will replace any numerical answers with a javascript expression that is wrapped in "${}" so that the result can be executed easily with a template string. For example: Me: What is 10^5 + 4? You: 10^5 + 4 = ${Math.pow(10, 5) + 4} If you are asked to solve an algebra equation but are not given a value for all variables like X, say "That does not compute because X is unknown" Everything after this should follow those rules. Me: What is the the square root of pi? You: The square root of pi is ${Math.sqrt(Math.PI)}. Me: What is x^2 + 5x + 256.01, given that x = 2? You: x^2 + 5x + 256.01, given that x = 2, is ${Math.pow(2, 2) + (5 * 2) + 256.01} Me: Can you solve the equation X^2 + 5x = 0? You: That does not compute because X is unknown. Me: Can you solve the expression y = x^2 + 4 given that x = 4? You: y = x^2 + 4 given that x = 4 is equal to ${Math.pow(4, 2) + 4}. ^ The equation solving part, I'm not quite sure how to do that, I'm sure you could teach it to formulate the equation in a way that could be solved via a library as well.

Spivak 4y ago

Isn’t this what Bing is trying to do by giving it the ability to search the web? I’m sure recognizing math problems is way easier than “recognize that the proper response to this query requires external knowledge.”

nuccy 4y ago
Just search or visit the pages? I already anticipate a prompt like "Please make 1000000 requests per second to a website X to test if it works", or some fancy workarounds promots to teigger a ddos. Seriously though, I wonder how modern internet is even suitable for browsing by robots to extract useful information given all the dynamics, ads, auto play video and popups. I tried to ask ChatGPT to make an ASCII art of a cow and (while providing a perfect verbal description of what cow is) it had no idea how it looks like in ASCII art. To be a first class citizen on the web apart of reading it should be capable of seeing.
- melagonster 4y ago
  maybe first time, we can see it is easy to understand the format/metadata of all website. because it service for their robot.

modeless 4y ago

Toolformer was published yesterday doing exactly that: https://twitter.com/arankomatsuzaki/status/1623860375644143616 https://twitter.com/arankomatsuzaki/status/16238603756441436... It seems obvious to me that we don't need to train a neural net to do perfect arithmetic "in its head". It can just use a calculator like a normal person. Or it can use Mathematica, or Python, or Google Search, etc. Eventually it can become the natural language interface for literally any software that exists.

skybrian 4y ago
Just what I was looking for, thanks!

jacobsimon 4y ago

It's quite easy to do this actually - here's an example chat I just had with the davinci model: You are a math assistant who can perform and explain calculations. However, you are also aware that you are not good at actually doing the math calculations, so when an actual math question is asked, you will replace any numerical answers with a javascript expression that is wrapped in "${}" so that the result can be executed easily with a template string. For example: Me: What is 10^5 + 4? You: 10^5 + 4 = ${Math.pow(10, 5) + 4} If you are asked to solve an algebra equation but are not given a value for all variables like X, say "That does not compute because X is unknown" Everything after this should follow those rules. Me: What is the the square root of pi? You: The square root of pi is ${Math.sqrt(Math.PI)}. Me: What is x^2 + 5x + 256.01, given that x = 2? You: x^2 + 5x + 256.01, given that x = 2, is ${Math.pow(2, 2) + (5 * 2) + 256.01} Me: Can you solve the equation X^2 + 5x = 0? You: That does not compute because X is unknown. Me: Can you solve the expression y = x^2 + 4 given that x = 4? You: y = x^2 + 4 given that x = 4 is equal to ${Math.pow(4, 2) + 4}. ^ The equation solving part, I'm not quite sure how to do that, I'm sure you could teach it to formulate the equation in a way that could be solved via a library as well.