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Why does ChatGPT think mammoths were alive in December?

• weinzierl 1y ago
  "[..] if you ask questions like “answer with a single word: were any mammoths still alive in December”, chatbots will often answer "yes". [..] I find this weird [..]" I don't and it's the technically correct answer. Hard to tell what I had answered unbiasedly now but I think more likely I'd said "yes" too than not. Especially when thinking about it and expecting a trick question.
  • JohnFen 1y ago
    Except that (at least in idiomatic US language), if you refer to just "December" without qualifications, it's assumed that you're talking about either the previous or next December, depending on context. That's why it's a weird answer, unless it was intended to leverage the ambiguity for comedic effect.
    • weinzierl 1y ago
      So what would "I go skiing in December" mean in your opinion? I read this as "I go skiing every December". Next December would be "I'm going skiing in December", last December "I went skiing in December". When it comes to "were any mammoths still alive in December" the only logically sensible reading is "were any mammoths still alive in any December" to which the answer of course is "yes".