Probably should’ve just asked Wolfram Alpha
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.
LLMs can’t math
“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.
Maybe the intent is to make people even dumber. It’s just misinformation all the way down.
Oh. I just noticed the extraneous word in the search, which might be throwing off the LLM trying to understand it.
Not even moderately helpful for printer questions.
It sounds like some weird ritual that someone scratched into a notebook.
𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿?? ｕｎｄｅｒ ｂａｔｔｅｒｙ, m͟u͟s͟t͟ f͟i͟n͟d͟ k͟e͟y͟s͟
What, your printer doesn’t have a full keyboard under its battery? You’ve gotta get with the times my man.
Google’s AI seems dumber than the rest, for example here’s Kagi answering the same (using Claude):
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.
There are two meanings being conflated here.
“1/3 more” can mean “+ 1/3” or "* (1 + 1/3)“.
So “1/3 more (of 1/3) 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.
Yes, and the Google AI response is correct (and quite clear) in what it says.
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.
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.
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)
Aha, yes. Somehow I forgot the difference interpretation for a moment. Oops!
You are saying “yes” to a comment explaining why the Google AI response cannot possibly be correct, so what do you mean “and [it’s] correct”?
Ah, you’re right - I misunderstood jbrain’s point to just be about the “relative to the original” understanding. Guess I’m no smarter than Google’s AI.
Kagi has Claude built in? I’ve been using it for a year and didn’t know that.
(1/3) +(1/2)(1/3) = 1/2
Math checks out from this end.
“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.
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.
