Probably should've just asked Wolfram Alpha
It is correct. Half is 3/6 a third is 2/6. So a half is one third larger than 1/3
this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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You dropped this: /s
LLMs are really fucking bad at math. They're trying to find the statistical close answer, not doing computation. It's rather mind-numbingly dumb.
Unfortunately a shockingly large number of people don’t get this… including my old boss who was running an AI-based startup 💀
I read it as “A third of a third plus a third is a half.” Which makes sense to me. What an I missing?
It's wrong. 1/3 + (1/3 * 1/3) = 3/9 + 1/9 = 4/9. It's close though.
However, one third plus one half of a third is correct. 1/3 + (1/2 * 1/3) = 1/3 + (1.5/3 * 1/3) = 1/3 + 0.5/3 = 1.5/3 = 1/2
I'm guessing whatever it scraped to generate this was intended for divvying up food rather than doing actual math. 1/3 plus a third of a third is close enough to a half if you're talking about portioning out pizza or leftovers or what have you.
divvying up food rather than doing actual math.
divvying up - dividing food into equal proportions - is math.
Yep, the difference between .444... And .5 is only .0555...
Who notices 5 nintieths of something? That's going to be within the error of sloppy measuring anyways
What an I missing?
basic arithmetic? .33 + .33 doesn't = .5
Guess that makes two of us. More like .11 + .33 doesn’t = .5
I was thinking the same thing.
Not even moderately helpful for printer questions.
What, your printer doesn't have a full keyboard under its battery? You've gotta get with the times my man.
It sounds like some weird ritual that someone scratched into a notebook.
𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿?? ｕｎｄｅｒ ｂａｔｔｅｒｙ, m͟u͟s͟t͟ f͟i͟n͟d͟ k͟e͟y͟s͟
Most desk side support is exactly that.
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80 year old grandmas trying to find the Ctrl and Alt buttons on her printer...
Did she look under the battery?
Google's AI seems dumber than the rest, for example here's Kagi answering the same (using Claude):
edit: typoed question originally
Perhaps 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.
this is why i like the DDG approach: don't have the LLM try to reason, just have it pull information from sources you've checked aren't completely insane, and summarize an answer from there.
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)
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one third plus one half of one third is one half.
I think thats an issue with AI, it has been so much trained on complex questions that now when you ask a simple one, it mistakes it for a complex one and answers it that way
The issue is it's an LLM. It puts words in an order that's statistically plausible but has no reasoning power.
It's auto-complete. It knows that "4" is the most common substring to follow "2 + 2" in its training. It's not actually doing addition.
Can i out pendant you?
Sure, but, what does that have to do with the AI answer? Wait.. Are you an AI?
Now ask it if a Third-of-a-Pound burger is bigger than a Quarter Pounder
Did Google train Gemini on American dataset?
LLMs can't math
Ironically the one thing computers are normally good at.
yea
(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.
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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.
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”.
It's not trying to say either of them.
It's just guessing what word to say next, given the previous words in the context.
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Or ⅓ + (⅓*½) = ½
1/3 is 1/2 of 2/3
"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.
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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.
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