4 ms·

You're using it wrong, you can use natural language in your equation, but afaik it's not supposed to be able to do what you're asking of it.

CamperBob2 2y ago
You know, "You're using it wrong" is usually meant to carry an ironic or sarcastic tone, right? It dates back to Steve Jobs blaming an iPhone 4 user for "holding it wrong" rather than acknowledging a flawed antenna design that was causing dropped calls. The closest Apple ever came to admitting that it was their problem was when they subsequently ran an employment ad to hire a new antenna engineering lead. Maybe it's time for Wolfram to hire a new language-model lead.
- kortilla 2y ago
  No, “holding it wrong” is the sarcastic version. “You’re using it wrong” is a super common way to tell people they are literally using something wrong.
  - CamperBob2 2y ago
    But they're not using it wrong. They are using it as advertised by Wolfram themselves (read: himself). The GP's rocket equation question is exactly the sort of use case for which Alpha has been touted for years.
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  It's not an LLM. You're simply asking too much of it. It doesn't work the way you want it to, sorry.
  - CamperBob2 2y ago
    Tell Wolfram. They're the ones who've been advertising it for years, well before LLMs were a thing, using English-language prompts like these examples: https://www.pcmag.com/news/23-cool-non-math-things-you-can-do-with-wolfram-alpha https://www.pcmag.com/news/23-cool-non-math-things-you-can-d... The problem has always been that you only get good answers if you happen to stumble on a specific question that it can handle. Combining Alpha with an LLM could actually be pretty awesome, but I'm sure it's easier said than done.
    - Sharlin 2y ago
      Before LLMs exploded nobody really expected WA to perform well at natural language comprehension. The expectations were at the level of "an ELIZA that knows math".
  - edflsafoiewq 2y ago
    Correct, so it isn't a "ChatGPT of Math", which was the point.

CamperBob2 2y ago

You know, "You're using it wrong" is usually meant to carry an ironic or sarcastic tone, right? It dates back to Steve Jobs blaming an iPhone 4 user for "holding it wrong" rather than acknowledging a flawed antenna design that was causing dropped calls. The closest Apple ever came to admitting that it was their problem was when they subsequently ran an employment ad to hire a new antenna engineering lead. Maybe it's time for Wolfram to hire a new language-model lead.

kortilla 2y ago
No, “holding it wrong” is the sarcastic version. “You’re using it wrong” is a super common way to tell people they are literally using something wrong.
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  But they're not using it wrong. They are using it as advertised by Wolfram themselves (read: himself). The GP's rocket equation question is exactly the sort of use case for which Alpha has been touted for years.
bongodongobob 2y ago
It's not an LLM. You're simply asking too much of it. It doesn't work the way you want it to, sorry.
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  Tell Wolfram. They're the ones who've been advertising it for years, well before LLMs were a thing, using English-language prompts like these examples: https://www.pcmag.com/news/23-cool-non-math-things-you-can-do-with-wolfram-alpha https://www.pcmag.com/news/23-cool-non-math-things-you-can-d... The problem has always been that you only get good answers if you happen to stumble on a specific question that it can handle. Combining Alpha with an LLM could actually be pretty awesome, but I'm sure it's easier said than done.
  - Sharlin 2y ago
    Before LLMs exploded nobody really expected WA to perform well at natural language comprehension. The expectations were at the level of "an ELIZA that knows math".
- edflsafoiewq 2y ago
  Correct, so it isn't a "ChatGPT of Math", which was the point.