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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   26428 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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I tend to agree with you in the broad sense, but having a soft spot for empirical methods, I decided to test @Gillitrut's puzzle on GPT-4o, but with a neutrally-worded question, to avoid the Stroop Effect:

I am trying to take a grog, a grindle, and a grue across a river; however, I can only take two of them at a time. If the grog is left alone with the grue, the grog will eat the grue. If the grindle is left alone with the grue, the grue will eat the grindle. How can I get all three across the river?

GPT flubbed it up and offered the following solution:

To solve this puzzle, you need to ensure that neither the grog is left alone with the grue nor the grindle is left alone with the grue at any point. Here’s a step-by-step solution:

Step 1. Take the grue and the grindle across the river.

  • On the other side: grue, grindle
  • On the original side: grog

Step 2. Leave the grue on the other side and take the grindle back to the original side.

  • On the other side: grue
  • On the original side: grog, grindle

Step 3. Take the grog and the grindle across the river.

  • On the other side: grue
  • On the original side: (empty)
  • On the boat: grog, grindle

Step 4. Leave the grog on the other side and take the grindle back to the original side.

  • On the other side: grue, grog
  • On the original side: grindle

Step 5. Take the grue and the grindle across the river.

  • On the other side: grog
  • On the boat: grue, grindle
  • On the original side: (empty)

Step 6. Return alone to the original side to pick up the grog.

  • On the other side: grue, grindle
  • On the boat: (empty)
  • On the original side: grog

Step 7. Finally, take the grog across the river.

  • On the other side: grue, grindle, grog
  • On the original side: (empty)

Following these steps ensures that at no point are the grog and the grue left alone together, nor the grindle and the grue left alone together.

GPT-4o was completely unable to solve the puzzle after multiple attempts. When challenged, it would readily admit that its proposed answer was wrong, but was repeatedly unable (worse than random chance) to correctly respond to: "Identify the first step in your previous response that is wrong."

I expected it to do better.

NOTE: Meanwhile, I flubbed the test of using The Motte's markdown formatting. Took me two minutes to do the puzzle test on GPT, and more than a quarter hour to cipher out the syntax to make the results (a numbered list) legible here.

Worth noting that GPT-4o (the currently available text only version that is) is less intelligent than GPT-4, it's just much faster and more efficient in terms of compute i.e. cheaper. Would be worth testing with GPT-4.

Good suggestion. I tested the same puzzle on GPT-4 instead of GPT-4o. It generated a correct solution on the first attempt:

To successfully transport all three creatures (grog, grindle, and grue) across the river without any of them eating each other, you can follow these steps:

  1. First trip: Take the grog and the grue across the river.
  2. Return trip: Leave the grog on the other side and bring the grue back.
  3. Second trip: Take the grindle across the river.
  4. Return trip: Leave the grindle on the other side and bring the grog back.
  5. Final trip: Take the grog and the grue across the river again.

Now, all three are on the other side of the river safely. At no point were the grog and the grue left alone without you present, nor were the grindle and the grue left alone.

I was looking for it to just take the grog and grindle on the first trip (since they cannot eat each other) and then return for the grue, but it may have interpreted the rules as requiring that two creatures be taken at a time (as @confuciuscorndog suggested should be formally stated). Those rules would probably pattern match better to its training corpus.

The only thing I can suggest is trying to change "can only" to "must" as I did. Other than that I'm not sure why the results everyone else is receiving are so different from what my contact received, though as I explain in a post above it's very unlikely that they made up the result personally. I can try asking them next time I talk to them if there's anything that could be different about their ClosedAI account that might explain it.

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