Artificial Intelligence
I Found a Simple Math Mistake in ChatGPT
I made the Open AI artificial intelligence app fix its math errorChatGPT’s websiteEveryone is oohing and ahhing about how great ChatGPT is in the artificial intelligence world. This is the brainchild app from OpenAI — a company now backed by Microsoft.
In fact, this week Microsoft announced it was incorporating ChatGPT in its “new Bing” search engine.
CNBC interview 2–7–10 with the CEO of Microsoft about ChatGPTThe problem is I found that ChatGPT made a simple math mistake, that if I had not checked would have gone on in its system.
But first, consider this. Much was made this week of the error that Google’s new Bard AI system also made a mistake. Oops. That factual error cost Alphabet, the parent, $100 billion, according to Time magazine.
Time article on BardBut I am going to show that apparently, not every AI system can be completely trusted — even ChatGPT.
The ProblemHere is what happened in 4 settings.
Setting 1.0I had just written an article online with NewsBreak about the incredible growth rate that the new sport Pickleball is enjoying:
“Pickleball’s Incredible Growth Rate Shows No Slowdown — As Inactive People Transition From Tennis to Pickleball”.
Newsbreak article on PickleballIt is growing by at least 30% a year, based on membership numbers in USA Pickleball, the national organization.
Setting 2.0I am working for Foldstar Inc., based in Princeton, NJ as Foldstar’s Chief Strategy Officer (here is my LinkedIn page). In one of our discussions, I mentioned that at a 30% growth rate, pickleball will double in size well before the end of 3 years.
This is because I know from playing blackjack as a card counter (see my article here in Medium, “How I Use Probability To Make Money in Blackjack,” about this) if I increase my stack size by 26.2% 3 times I will double my stack.
I use that as a session mile marker. If I can play 3 times and make a little over a quarter and do that 3x times my stack will double. That is well below 30%, so I know that at 30% it will take me less than 3x times to double.
(For math geeks, 1.262³ = 2.00, i.e., a double, and 1.416² = 2.00, i.e., increasing my stake 41.6% twice will also double it.)
Therefore, I hypothesized that Pickleball could double well before 3 years ended, but I did not know exactly how long. Would it be 2.5 years? That could be important to participants in the industry.
Setting 3.0This got me thinking: how many years exactly would it take for Pickleball to double in size if it was growing at a 30% clip annually?
In other words, solve for x in the formula:
(1.30)^x = 2.0,
where x = the number of years it takes to double if growth is compounding at 30% a year.
Well, I knew that the answer here would involve logarithms.
But I needed a refresher on logs. I knew that the expression logs=exponents, but I still did not know how to structure this exact equation to solve for x.
I asked ChatGPT this:
ChatGPT session — Mark Hake, Feb 10, 2023The Answer and the ChatGPT ErrorHere is the first answer I got from ChatGPT:
Note, that I circled the answer and saw that the answer that ChatGPT came up with was 2.24 years. ChatGPT used Python’s math function, and it calculated that ln(2)/ln(1.3) = 2.24 years.
Setting 4.0But I suspected that number was wrong. I thought it might take longer.
I did a simple math check. Here is what I said to ChatGPT, along with its answer:
Mark Hake — ChatGPT session 2–10–23In other words, 1.30^(2.24) = 1.80, not 2.00.
The correct answer that I found using a calculator and dividing ln(2) by ln(1.3) is 2.64. That is, 1.30 to the power of 2.64 years equals a double. It takes longer than what ChptGPT said.
Immediately, ChatGPT saw its error.
I asked GPT why it made this mistake.
Mark Hake — GPT Session 2–10–23Here is ChatGPT’s answer:
ChatGPT answer 2–10–23So, I asked it to do the calculation using Decimal in Python.
Mark Hake — ChatGPT Session 2–10–23ChatGPT made the correction using Decimal:
ChatGPT answerIn other words, ChatGPT admitted its own calculation error using the wrong software, and simply checking its result against a calculator would have saved it from this simple math mistake.
ConclusionI am tempted to say to not always trust ChatGPT, especially with math calculations. But that may be too simplistic. Apparently, it doesn’t like to use calculators. I would rather use software to do math questions.
The bottom line is this: I may have to double-check ChatGPT’s mathematics results in the future, against a simple calculator.
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By: Mark Hake
Title: I Found a Simple Math Mistake in ChatGPT
Sourced From: medium.datadriveninvestor.com/i-found-a-simple-math-mistake-in-chatgpt-ac83a7994f10
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