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this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Chatgpt fails at basic math, and lies ablut the existence of technical documentation.
I mostly use it for recipe inspuration and discussing books Ive read recently. Just banter, you know? Nothing mission-critical.
Just a couple days ago it continually told me it was possible to re-tile part of my shower that is broken without cutting tiles, but none of the math added up. (18.5H x 21.5w area) "Place a 9" tile vertically. Place another 9“ tile vertically on top on the same side. Place another 9" tile on top vertically to cover the remainder of the area."
I told chatgpt it was wrong, which it admitted, and spit out another wrong answer. I tried specifying a few more times before I started a new chat and dumbed it down to just a simple math algorithm problem. The first part of the chat said it was possible, layed out the steps, and then said it wasn't possible in the last sentence.
I surely wouldn't trust chatgpt to advise my healthcare, but after seeing it spit out very wrong answers to a basic math question, I'm just wondering why anyone would try to have it advise anyone's health are.
People want to trust it as a source of quick knowledge. It is easier to be told 9 goes into 81 a total of 8 times trusting that the computer is always right, because it had access to everything, than to work out the answer given was wrong and is actually 9.
Think of WebMD. People love to self diagnose despite it commonly being known as a bad practice. But they do so because they can do it with less effort, faster, and cheaper than making an appointment to drive to an office so you can speak with a doctor that runs a few tests and gets back to you in a week saying they aren't sure and need to do that process all over again.
The healthcare issue is that I'm usually checking WebMD to see if what I'm experiencing is an actual issue that I need to go to the doctor for since it's so expensive to go to a doctor.