Probably should’ve just asked Wolfram Alpha
LLMs can’t math
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.
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”.
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.
“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.
Google’s AI seems dumber than the rest, for example here’s Kagi answering the same (using Claude):
edit: typoed question originallyPerhaps 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 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.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.
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.
It tries to auto-determine when to trigger, but you can explicitly trigger it by putting a question mark after your query.
(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.
Maybe the intent is to make people even dumber. It’s just misinformation all the way down.
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.
Oh. I just noticed the extraneous word in the search, which might be throwing off the LLM trying to understand it.
I asked ChatGPT these questions and got sensible answers.
How much more is one half than one third?
[subtraction answer: 1/6 more]
That’s one possibility, but what about the other way to interpret that question?
[ratio answer, but expressed as “1.5 times as much” rather than “1/2 more”]
Divide 50% by 3 and get 16.666666…
Add that to the 50%, you gets 66.6666…%
Which is the same as dividing a whole into 3 and adding two together.
It’s trying to get there, but it seems to think you’re talking about starting with 50% and increasing that by 1/3 of the existing half.
It interpreted what you typed as something like:
X=50
Y=x/3
Solve for:
X+Y
And gave you 66.666…%
But you could also just get a calculator and type 50 - 33.33333
I don’t know why anyone would Google this question in a search engine, AI is dumb enough without trying to phrase things in a way that you think it says something stupid.
Like, did you legitimately Google it that way in an attempt find out the difference between half and a third?
It’s trying to get there, but it seems to think you’re talking about starting with 50% and increasing that by 1/3 of the existing half.
Yeah, it’s definitely trying something. But it’s also showing the problems with LLM.
Like, did you legitimately Google it that way in an attempt find out the difference between half and a third?
I remember being able to put basic math problems into Google and it spit out the correct answer. But you’re right, that’s entirely on me for expecting Google to work right after all the enshitification. For the record, Wolfram Alpha gave the correct answer.
LLMs predict statistical likelihoods of words coming next. Them not being able to do math, unless explicitly given extra instructions to identify and do those problems, has been reported before, IIRC.
I remember being able to put basic math problems into Google and it spit out the correct answer
Pretty sure you can still do that if you don’t type it out as weird as possible…
But I haven’t tried to Google something in over a year.
Have fun tho I guess.
