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I just asked ChatGPT to give me directions to my favorite shop in Manhattan from Penn Station. It gave me wrong public transit directions about which subway to

I just asked ChatGPT to give me directions to my favorite shop in Manhattan from Penn Station. It gave me wrong public transit directions about which subway to take. It also gave me wrong walking directions, putting me blocks off course and as to which side of the street I'd find the shop on. The only thing it got right was: "Please note that subway schedules and routes can vary, so it's a good idea to use a navigation app like Google Maps or the official MTA website for real-time information and step-by-step directions."

redhale 3y ago
Well I guess that ends the debate then. ChatGPT: not even as good as MapQuest. Checkmate, OpenAI.
- tsunamifury 3y ago
  yea there seems to be such a weirdly deliberate way to use it incorrectly.
lucubratory 3y ago
I absolutely agree, and I've been in several similar situations. Yesterday I finally caved and gave it very clear instructions on how I wanted it to build my new IKEA shelf, even though understanding the instructions is most of the work, and guess what? The box is still sitting there, unopened! It hasn't even started. I asked it if it could fight Malenia for me, same thing, more useless machine babble. Repair the slipping rubber on my office chair, incoherent results and not even an attempt to start. Factorise a prime number (I just wanted to break the encryption on some traffic I got a hold of) and it didn't work, again. Just now, I asked ChatGPT what number I was thinking of and it got it so unbelievably wrong... I can't even believe people are using this crap. ChatGPT has very much not come good on the promises OpenAI made about what it could do.
BoorishBears 3y ago
This is kind of like if a fisherman walking down the street looked up at a steel sky scraper and proclaimed: "Gee, how can they be making entire buildings out of that?! Why my plastic dinghy could be out at sea for a year and not pick up a lick of rust, meanwhile my steel fishing hooks are rusty if I leave them out on a rainy night!"
oefnak 3y ago
I'm really unsure if you are making a joke, but in case you're serious: using a language model for directions is like using a thermometer for calculations. Sure, it uses numbers...
- PeterCorless 3y ago
  The problem is that actual people are trusting the output they get, not realizing that it's just plausible sounding, not correct. It is surprising just how plausible it sounds. Which is the uncanny valley into which any number of people will walk off the proverbial cliff and fall into. The hype surrounding the capabilities of LLMs far exceeds its actual output.
  - frumper 3y ago
    People trust all kinds of bad output. Look at politics and how hyped people get over the promises that are never kept.

redhale 3y ago

Well I guess that ends the debate then. ChatGPT: not even as good as MapQuest. Checkmate, OpenAI.

tsunamifury 3y ago
yea there seems to be such a weirdly deliberate way to use it incorrectly.

lucubratory 3y ago

I absolutely agree, and I've been in several similar situations. Yesterday I finally caved and gave it very clear instructions on how I wanted it to build my new IKEA shelf, even though understanding the instructions is most of the work, and guess what? The box is still sitting there, unopened! It hasn't even started. I asked it if it could fight Malenia for me, same thing, more useless machine babble. Repair the slipping rubber on my office chair, incoherent results and not even an attempt to start. Factorise a prime number (I just wanted to break the encryption on some traffic I got a hold of) and it didn't work, again. Just now, I asked ChatGPT what number I was thinking of and it got it so unbelievably wrong... I can't even believe people are using this crap. ChatGPT has very much not come good on the promises OpenAI made about what it could do.

BoorishBears 3y ago

This is kind of like if a fisherman walking down the street looked up at a steel sky scraper and proclaimed: "Gee, how can they be making entire buildings out of that?! Why my plastic dinghy could be out at sea for a year and not pick up a lick of rust, meanwhile my steel fishing hooks are rusty if I leave them out on a rainy night!"

oefnak 3y ago

I'm really unsure if you are making a joke, but in case you're serious: using a language model for directions is like using a thermometer for calculations. Sure, it uses numbers...

PeterCorless 3y ago
The problem is that actual people are trusting the output they get, not realizing that it's just plausible sounding, not correct. It is surprising just how plausible it sounds. Which is the uncanny valley into which any number of people will walk off the proverbial cliff and fall into. The hype surrounding the capabilities of LLMs far exceeds its actual output.
- frumper 3y ago
  People trust all kinds of bad output. Look at politics and how hyped people get over the promises that are never kept.