this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Probably should've just asked Wolfram Alpha

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[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

It is correct. Half is 3/6 a third is 2/6. So a half is one third larger than 1/3

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 158 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Not even moderately helpful for printer questions.

[–] Pyro@programming.dev 76 points 6 days ago

What, your printer doesn't have a full keyboard under its battery? You've gotta get with the times my man.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 47 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

It sounds like some weird ritual that someone scratched into a notebook.

𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿?? under battery, m͟u͟s͟t͟ f͟i͟n͟d͟ k͟e͟y͟s͟

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 9 points 6 days ago

Most desk side support is exactly that.

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[–] Wilmo@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

80 year old grandmas trying to find the Ctrl and Alt buttons on her printer...

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Did she look under the battery?

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

LLMs are really fucking bad at math. They're trying to find the statistical close answer, not doing computation. It's rather mind-numbingly dumb.

[–] kahnclusions@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

Unfortunately a shockingly large number of people don’t get this… including my old boss who was running an AI-based startup 💀

[–] superkret@feddit.org 39 points 6 days ago (3 children)

one third plus one half of one third is one half.

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

Sure, but, what does that have to do with the AI answer? Wait.. Are you an AI?

[–] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I think thats an issue with AI, it has been so much trained on complex questions that now when you ask a simple one, it mistakes it for a complex one and answers it that way

[–] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 days ago

The issue is it's an LLM. It puts words in an order that's statistically plausible but has no reasoning power.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's auto-complete. It knows that "4" is the most common substring to follow "2 + 2" in its training. It's not actually doing addition.

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[–] Deebster@programming.dev 53 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

Google's AI seems dumber than the rest, for example here's Kagi answering the same (using Claude):


edit: typoed question originally

Perhaps Google's tried to make it run too cheaply - Kagi's one doesn't run unless you ask for it, and as a paid product it'll have different priorities.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 hours ago

this is why i like the DDG approach: don't have the LLM try to reason, just have it pull information from sources you've checked aren't completely insane, and summarize an answer from there.

[–] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

There are two meanings being conflated here.

"1/3 more" can mean "+ 1/3" or "* (1 + 1/3)“.

So "1/3 more than 1/3" could be 2/3 or 4/9, but not 1/2.

Instead 1/2 is 1/2 more than 1/3, not 1/3 more. That's the meme I've seen go around recently.

[–] Deebster@programming.dev 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

~~Yes, and the Google AI response is correct (and quite clear) in what it says.~~ edit: Thanks Batman. I mean that Google's understanding of the question is logical (although still the maths is wrong as you say (now I've re-read you)) and its answer explained the angle it was answering from.

However, I think the reasonable assumption for the intention behind the question is relative to a whole. I had third of a pizza, and now I have an extra sixth of a pizza. It's subtle, but that's the kind of thing AI falls down on.

[–] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I agree with your assessment regarding the intention of the phrase. We're back at the silly arithmetic meme that hinges on not grouping terms explicitly and watching people yell at each other in the mistaken belief that there's one authoritative interpretation of an ambiguous string of symbols.

Still, the actual mistake remains. Why an extra 1/6 of the pizza? 1/3 of 1/3 is 1/9, not 1/6. That's 1/2 of 1/3.

[–] Deebster@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I thought we were finally agreeing fully! My understanding of the question is "what is the difference between a third (of a pizza, say) and a half?"

1/2 - 1/3 = 1/6
1/2 = 1/3 + 1/6
a half is one sixth more than a third.

btw, I fixed my Kagi screenshot since I'd missed a word from the question (reading comprehension's clearly not my strong point today)

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[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 34 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Now ask it if a Third-of-a-Pound burger is bigger than a Quarter Pounder

[–] quant@leminal.space 5 points 6 days ago

Did Google train Gemini on American dataset?

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 34 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ironically the one thing computers are normally good at.

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[–] elbucho@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago (3 children)

This is very clearly an example of bad AI, but maybe it was trying (and failing) to convey this?

Basically, 1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81 + ... + 1/3^n = 1/2.

Probably not. But maybe.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I’m thinking it’s trying to say:

(2/6) + (1/6) = (3/6) = (4/6) - (1/6)

But either in “colloquial English for those who want to give other people aneurysms” or “colloquial English for those trying to sound smarter but aren’t”

Basically that the degree of difference between a half and a third is the same degree of difference between a half and two thirds- and that degree of difference is “one part”.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's not trying to say either of them.

It's just guessing what word to say next, given the previous words in the context.

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[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Or ⅓ + (⅓*½) = ½

[–] lauha@lemmy.one 4 points 6 days ago

1/3 is 1/2 of 2/3

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

(1/3) +(1/2)(1/3) = 1/2

Math checks out from this end.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 28 points 6 days ago (2 children)

"a half is one-third more than a third" should mean either

1/3 + 1/3 = 1/2

Or

1/3 + (1/3 × 1/3) = 1/2

Neither of which is true.

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[–] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

1/3 more than 1/3 is 4/9. What you wrote is 1/2 more than 1/3, not 1/3 more of it.

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I read it as “A third of a third plus a third is a half.” Which makes sense to me. What an I missing?

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It's wrong. 1/3 + (1/3 * 1/3) = 3/9 + 1/9 = 4/9. It's close though.

However, one third plus one half of a third is correct. 1/3 + (1/2 * 1/3) = 1/3 + (1.5/3 * 1/3) = 1/3 + 0.5/3 = 1.5/3 = 1/2

[–] mister_flibble@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I'm guessing whatever it scraped to generate this was intended for divvying up food rather than doing actual math. 1/3 plus a third of a third is close enough to a half if you're talking about portioning out pizza or leftovers or what have you.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

divvying up food rather than doing actual math.

divvying up - dividing food into equal proportions - is math.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Yep, the difference between .444... And .5 is only .0555...

Who notices 5 nintieths of something? That's going to be within the error of sloppy measuring anyways

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What an I missing?

basic arithmetic? .33 + .33 doesn't = .5

[–] notfromhere@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Guess that makes two of us. More like .11 + .33 doesn’t = .5

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

I was thinking the same thing.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

"42"

"The answer to life the universe and everything is 42!?"

"Yes, I checked it quite thoroughly."

...

"But what was the actual question?"


Alternatively, garbage in, garbage out.

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[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Maybe the intent is to make people even dumber. It’s just misinformation all the way down.

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wouldn't even be surprised at this point. It seems the system is intentionally designed to discourage critical thinking and apparently knowing how to do math properly is too close for comfort now.

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[–] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 6 days ago

I don't even look at the AI result. I scroll right past. That's the thing, if it's bullshit 50% of the time, and you can't always tell like you can here, then it's bullshit 100% of the time, and it's useless, just taking up screen real estate.

[–] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Oh. I just noticed the extraneous word in the search, which might be throwing off the LLM trying to understand it.

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