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579 points paulpauper | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.2s | source
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aerhardt ◴[] No.43604214[source]
My mom told me yesterday that Paul Newman had massive problems with alcohol. I was somewhat skeptical, so this morning I asked ChatGPT a very simple question:

"Is Paul Newman known for having had problems with alcohol?"

All of the models up to o3-mini-high told me he had no known problems. Here's o3-mini-high's response:

"Paul Newman is not widely known for having had problems with alcohol. While he portrayed characters who sometimes dealt with personal struggles on screen, his personal life and public image were more focused on his celebrated acting career, philanthropic work, and passion for auto racing rather than any issues with alcohol. There is no substantial or widely reported evidence in reputable biographies or interviews that indicates he struggled with alcohol abuse."

There is plenty of evidence online that he struggled a lot with alcohol, including testimony from his long-time wife Joanne Woodward.

I sent my mom the ChatGPT reply and in five minutes she found an authoritative source to back her argument [1].

I use ChatGPT for many tasks every day, but I couldn't fathom that it would get so wrong something so simple.

Lesson(s) learned... Including not doubting my mother's movie trivia knowledge.

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/who-paul-newma...

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mhh__ ◴[] No.43606774[source]
Unless you're expecting an LLM to have access to literally all information on earth at all times I find it really hard to care about this particular type of complaint.

My calculator can't conjugate German verbs. That's fine IMO. It's just a tool

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1. forgetfreeman ◴[] No.43606828[source]
Yes but a tool for what? When asked a question individuals that don't already have detailed knowledge of a topic are left with no way to tell if the AI generated response is complete bullshit, uselessly superficial, or detailed and on point. The only way to be sure is to then go do the standard search engine grovel looking for authoritative sources.