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I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

mastodon.world

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Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#81
Too many things are left unsaid => too many assumptions. As usual, even with human beings specifications are key, and context (what each entity knows about the other one or the situation) is an implicit part of them.

You need to specify where the car to be washed is located, and:

- if it's not already at the car wash: whether or not it can drive itself there (autonomous driving)

- otherwise: whether or not you have another car available.

Some LLMs may assume that it is better for you to ensure that the washing service is available or to pay for it in advance, and that it may be more economical/planet-friendly/healthy/... to walk, then check/pay, then if OK to drive back.

Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#82
post #20

All of the latest models I've tried actually pass this test. What I found interesting was all of the success cases were similar to: e.g. "Drive. Most car washes require the car to be present to wash,..." Only most?! They have an inability to have a strong "opinion" probably because their post training, and maybe the internet in general, prefer hedged answers....

There are mobile car washes that come to your house.

That still requires a car present to be washed though.

Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#83
I have never played with / used any of this new-fangled AI-whatever, and have no intention to ever do so of my own free will and volition. I’d rathert inject dirty heroin from a rusty spoon with a used needle.

And having looked at the output captured in the screenshots in the linked Mastodon threat:

If anyone needs me, I’ll be out back sharpening my axe.

Call me when the war against the machines begins. Or the people who develop and promote this crap.

I don’t understand, at all, what any of this is about.

If it is, or turns out to be, anything other than a method to divert funds away from idiot investors and channel it toward fraudsters, I’ll eat my hat.

Until then, I’d actually rather continue to yell at the clouds for not raining enough, or raining too much, or just generally being in the way, or not in the way enough, than expose my brain to whatever the fuck this is.

Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#84
post #33
post #6

It turns out the Turing test is alive and kicking, after all.

This would not be a good question, because a non-negligible percentage of humans would give a similar answer.

That's a great opportunity for a controlled study! You should do it. If you can send me the draft publication after doing the study, I can give feedback on it.

Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#88
post #20

All of the latest models I've tried actually pass this test. What I found interesting was all of the success cases were similar to: e.g. "Drive. Most car washes require the car to be present to wash,..." Only most?! They have an inability to have a strong "opinion" probably because their post training, and maybe the internet in general, prefer hedged answers....

Opus 4.6 answered with "Drive." Opus 4.6 in incognito mode (or whatever they call it) answered with "Walk."

Re: I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?

#90

I've used LLMs enough that I have a good sense of their _edges_ of intelligence. I had assumed that reasoning models should easily be able to answer this correctly. And indeed, Sonnet and Opus 4.5 (medium reasoning) say the following: Sonnet: Drive - you need to bring your car to the car wash to get it washed! Opus: You'll need to drive — you have to bring the car to the car wash to get it washed! Gemini 3 Pro (mediu…

Gemini on fast also tells me to walk...

On Thinking it tells me I should drive if I want to wash it, or walk if it's because I work there or if I want to buy something at the car wash shop.

On Pro it's like a sarcastic teenager: Cars are notoriously difficult to wash by dragging a bucket back and forth.

Technically correct, but did catch me offguard lol.

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