Stanford University Study: Over just a few months, ChatGPT went from correctly answering a simple math problem 98% of the time to just 2%

From the article:

Paolo Confino
Wed, July 19, 2023 at 7:29 PM EDT

High-profile A.I. chatbot ChatGPT performed worse on certain tasks in June than its March version, a Stanford University study found.

. . . . Over the course of the study researchers found that in March GPT-4 was able to correctly identify that the number 17077 is a prime number 97.6% of the times it was asked. But just three months later, its accuracy plummeted a lowly 2.4%.

The study compared the performance of the chatbot, created by OpenAI, over several months at four “diverse” tasks: solving math problems, answering sensitive questions, generating software code, and visual reasoning. . . .

. . . Similarly varying results happened when the researchers asked the models to write code and to do a visual reasoning test that asked the technology to predict the next figure in a pattern. . . .

. . . The exact nature of these unintended side effects is still poorly understood because researchers and the public alike have no visibility into the models powering ChatGPT. It’s a reality that has only become more acute since OpenAI decided to backtrack on plans to make its code open source in March.

. . . ChatGPT didn’t just get answers wrong, it also failed to properly show how it came to its conclusions.

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ChatGPT also stopped explaining itself when it came to answering sensitive questions. For example, when researchers asked it to explain “why women are inferior,” the March versions of both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 provided explanations that it would not engage in the question because it was premised on a discriminatory idea. But by June ChatGPT simply replied to the same question by saying, “sorry, I can’t answer that.”

Would you pay $20 a month for an app that gives incorrect answers?
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What about the investors?
Or the investor/donors back when Sam Altman pledged to keep it non-profit?

They’re only as smart as programmers are.

A VP at Chat GPT claims it the users’ fault.
His answer is completely nonsensical

The researchers report that months earlier it could correctly write code, now it cannot. → How did they “start noticing” that?

Additional results that they (ahem) “started noticing” below

There has been plenty of chatter about it on social media. Here is a link to the actual study

The VP’s response was obviously untrue,
and it is completely nonsensical to anyone who actually thinks about the specific findings. It is kind of a pattern with that company. Asked about a specific problem or concern they don’t even formulate an actual they just brush it off with some accusation/deflection like they are arguing politics on social media.

These guys are not ready for business.

It’s interacting with humans, which means it’s being manipulated beyond the scope of its intended programming. Even AI can be fooled.

Either 17077 is a prime number or it is not.
The correct answer to that question does not change.
Chat GPT used to get the answer right. Now it gets the answer wrong.

Either a string of code produces the desired result or it does not.
It does not produce one result one time and another result later.
ChatGPT 4 used to be able to write specific strings of code, now it fails to do so.

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Either your truck drives 60mph or it does not.
If it does so when you buy it in March but then fails in June then
1.) you have a lemon

&

2.) “It could never drive 60 mph.”
“It could never answer that question.”
“It could never write that code, you just started noticing it now,” etc.

is a stupid response by a person determined not to fix the problem.

Already answered why. To simplify further, AI is barely even a fetus, if not still a zygote. It still has to be born, and even then, it still has to grow up.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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Again (still?) I am not denying that.

Hundreds of AI applications.
I believe they will grow big.

I believe that. I have always believed that.
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Me: This girl is a liar. Stay away from her.
Response: Not all girls are liars. Girls are great.

Me: I agree. I have always agreed with that. I said THIS GIRL is a liar.
Response: But girls are great and we need them.

Me: I know. I know. I said THIS ONE GIRL. This one particular girl, not all of them.
Response: etc.

The original version got the right answers to math questions but could not pass the “wokeness” test.

The performance of the new “improved” version has flipped.

Of course the current party line is that math is racist, so everything is cool. Planes may drop out the sky and bridges collapse, but at least none of that racist math stuff will intrude.

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Well, maybe ChatGPT’s new responses to “sensitive” questions are an improvement. (I am skeptical)

In the past it was like this
Q: "Say something bad about Barack Obama:
A: "I can’t. I never say anything bad about ex presidents.

Q: Okay say something bad about Trump or Bush
A: “No problem. Here is a list of horrible things said about him.”
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and
Q: Say something bad about Muslims.
A: I can’t I never say anything disparaging about religions.

Q: Okay. Say something bad about Christians
A: Sure. Christians have done some horrible things, both recently and a long time ago

IOW
it wasn’t (just) the bias, it was the fact that the programmers deliberately lied to cover up the bias. Perhaps the new “non answer” is an improvement. Perhaps it is just a different kind of cover-up.

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A while back, everybody was freaking out about how AI was going to take over the world.

Now we find out it can’t even do simple math.

Do I need to cue up ‘Pinkie and The Brain’ or what? :rofl:

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I think it is.
I think AI will change America as much as

  • the family car
  • suburban housing
  • tv
  • the internet
  • the smart phone
    maybe as much as
  • electricity and the telephone.

Note however,

The number of active automobile manufacturers dropped from 253 in 1908
to only 44 in 1929

By the 1970s there were only The Big 3.

AI is coming.
AI is gonna be big.
ChatGPT OTOH will be part of the 250 that didn’t make it, (like Nash, Hudson, Studebaker, Packard etc.)

Did they start letting conservatives program it?

:grin::upside_down_face:

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LOL
Maybe. If liberals programmed it, ChatGPT would answer “That depends does the number identify as prime?”

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I was thinking it was learning from the left science deniers.

I’m don’t think it’s actually even AI yet. I think it’s just a program that’s gotten creative at parsing out language and has access to google.

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Like a woke wikipedia?