If you’re worried about AI taking yer jobs, then mayhap it’s time to think again about these worries.
Because something as smol as a single blueberry dismantled AI a few months back. And you know what? While, yes, it’s probably true that AI will only get better over time, this is as damning a piece of evidence you could find about AI’s obvious shortcomings.
Anyway, here’s what happened:
Greg (or more accurately, @greg16676935420) on X tweeted out a thread a few months back with a simple question to a bunch of different AI bots that have popped up as of recent.
The prompt was as simple as a prompt could be:
“Where is the letter r in the word blueberry”
He asked this simple question to ChatGPT, which responded with this:
“The letter ‘r’ is not in the word blueberry”
Ooof, not a good look if you’re planning on using ChatGPT to grow your business.
He then asked the AI on Snapchat, who had a better answer than ChatGPT, but an incorrect answer nonetheless:
“The letter ‘r’ in the word ‘blueberry’ is between the ‘b’ and the first ‘e’”
Well, not exactly…
He then asked Bard (which has since rebranded to Gemini), Google’s AI, which gave this answer:
“The letter r in the word blueberry is at the 6th position.”
Bard did a good job of sounding smart. Only trouble is, the 6th position in blueberry is an E not an R.
Then he asked Bing, which gave the most egregious answer yet:
“The letter r is not in the word blueberry. Blueberry is spelled b-l-u-e-b-e-r-r-y, and it does not contain the letter r. However, if you are looking for a word that rhymes with blueberry, you might try cherry, ferry, or merry. These words have the same ending sound as blueberry, and they all have the letter r in them.”
I don’t know what’s worse here:
The unsolicited rhymes. The spelling of blueberry without realizing it not only contains one r, but two r’s. Or the fact that the rhyming words all include r, but blueberry somehow doesn’t.
He then asked Grok, which finally answered correctly (but gave a weird Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-ified answer):
“Ah, the letter R in blueberry is hiding in plain sight, much like a Vogon in a poetry recital. If you look closely, you’ll find it nestled between the ‘e’ and the ‘y,’ like a hitchhiker trying to avoid a particularly unpleasant planet.”
I mean… at least one AI bot answered the question correctly. Even if it took asking four AI bots failing to answer the simplest of questions before one actually answered correctly.
Not a good look for AI tbh.
Yes, even if it does improve.
Moral of the story?
AI’s good for some things. But thinking ain’t one of them.
And if you’re relying on AI to think (or to write, which is just thinking with extra steps), then, well, it might be time to rethink AI’s role in your business.
Anywho:
If you need help scaling your business with email, it’s helpful to have a human capable of both thought and writing on your team.
Hit reply if you’re ready to talk shop about optimizing your email strategy. It just might become the single most profitable marketing channel in your business.
John
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