this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 98 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I thought this was fake or a bad result or something, but totally just duplicated it. Wow.

If you read the block of text…. It doesn’t make sense either.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I expect if you follow the references you'd find one of them to be one of those "if Earth was a grain of sand" analogies.

People like laughing at AI but usually these silly-sounding answers accurately reflect the information the search returned.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (19 children)

It's in the quote that they scaled it.

The point is that the entire alleged value is the ability to parse the reading material and extract the key points, but because it doesn't resemble intelligence in any way, it isn't actually capable of meaningfully doing so.

Yes, not being able to distinguish between the real answer and a "banana for scale" analogy is a big problem that shows how fucking useless the technology is.

[–] btaf45 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It’s in the quote that they scaled it.

Yes but they supposedly scaled it to "one meter per meter". A "scale where the distance from the Sun to Earth is 150 million km" is the actual distance.

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[–] gaterush 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I just tried and got "about 40,000 billion kilometers". Also the references are completely different from the ones in the post, so I guess it was a ranking issue

AI is just too unpredictable, hard to know what's accurate and you end up doing the work yourself anyways

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

the loaded die at the end that chooses one of the llm's answers happened to land on a good word

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 months ago (3 children)

A great deal of energy, hardware and software went into providing that wrong answer.

[–] ameancow 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We should leave AI to the realm of producing fringe/impossible porn, like it was meant for and like what everyone actually wants from it. All this "search engine" stuff is just cover like when you buy some non-lube products like groceries along with the tube of astroglide at 1:00 AM.

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[–] Jackcooper 51 points 3 months ago
[–] mercano 51 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

[–] A_A 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 8.
(...)
”Space,” it says, ”is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. Listen . . . ” and so on.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Space is small. You just won't believe how itsy, bitsy, mind-bogglingly tiny it is. I mean, you may think it's long way to the fridge, but that's just peanuts to space

[–] btaf45 7 points 3 months ago

Space is small.

The diameter of the entire observable universe is not even a full ronnameter.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

Like every tool, it has its uses...but they are not those being advertised. LLMs are great for things where mistakes don't detract from the result (or even add to it) like brainstorming, art, music, disinformation...all that good stuff.

[–] btaf45 9 points 3 months ago (3 children)

That's what I think too. AI is mainly useful for things that don't have right or wrong answers.

Although this incorrect answers is obvious, what about all the times where an incorrect answer from AI is not obvious?

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[–] floral_toxicity 42 points 3 months ago

That's a big fucking problem if true. Albeit a short lived problem.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Have you gone 13.6 km up there to verify it's not there?

[–] ulkesh 6 points 3 months ago (4 children)

13.6km is 44,619ft.

So nearly every time one flies commercial, yes, since cruising altitude is between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. I think a large triple-star system would be quite visible at that point.

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[–] profdc9 37 points 3 months ago (8 children)

AI is statistically generated word salad.

[–] ameancow 16 points 3 months ago

Yah I'm so happy every major internet and tech company is deciding to deliberately power every system we use with random word salad generators, there's no chance will cause any problems.

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[–] very_well_lost 30 points 3 months ago (2 children)

In very next line, it says the distance is 4.37 lightyears away... which is also wrong, lol

For anyone wondering, the actual correct answer is about 4.25 lightyears or about 40 trillion kilometers.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (3 children)

These are all equally confusing. How many American football fields?

[–] very_well_lost 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In scientific terms? An absolute fuck-ton of football fields.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Approximately 437,445,319,335,083 of those.

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[–] Mrkawfee 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Relying on LLM for any facts without verifying is playing with fire.

[–] ulkesh 8 points 3 months ago

I suspect there’s a quite-overlapping Venn diagram of people who rely on LLMs for their “facts” with people who believe the earth is flat and people who believe ancient aliens are real.

[–] lunarul 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So really no excuse when the vogons come

[–] toynbee 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's no excuse anyway. The plans were very prominently displayed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

On display? I finally found them in the bottom of a locked filling cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the leopard".

[–] WindyRebel 25 points 3 months ago

Forgive Bing. It’s American and doesn’t know the metric system.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

I’m burrrrning!

[–] expatriado 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Stargate is a documentary.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

It's measuring the distance to your nearest copy of Sid Myers alpha centari

[–] Intheflsun 12 points 3 months ago

Good golly, someone make some chocolate chip cookies, we're going to have to go and welcome them to the neighborhood. Damn rude no one said anything sooner.

[–] NeoNachtwaechter 10 points 3 months ago

13.6 kilometers ought to be enough for anybody.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Hey, I have a half tank of gas, I think I will go check it out.

[–] IphtashuFitz 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s ~~126 miles to Chicago~~ 13.6 kilometers to Alpha Centauri, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack off cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago
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[–] RBWells 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go visit Alpha Centauri!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I have a copy of the Alpha Centauri game about 13.6 meters from me.

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[–] yuki2501 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When techbros said "you can type a question and the AI will answer", they seem to have forgotten that we expect the answers to be true and accurate.

And they seem to have forgotten that to do that, they actually need a database of facts.

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[–] BradleyUffner 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Like, are we sure? Has someone actually checked?

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[–] mechoman444 7 points 3 months ago

That's why it's been so gosh darn hot.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

41.5 petameters.

Nobody using the metric system says "trillion kilometers"! 🌞

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[–] punkwalrus 6 points 3 months ago

That explains why it's so hot outside.

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