Because for wolfram alpha to be usable, you need some specialist knowledge on what exactly you want to ask. ChatGPT allows anyone to just ask a computer something and it responds almost like normal people would do. It mostly crossed that uncanny valley of chatbots.
Speaking of which, I want to warn everyone that I've found that Wolfram Alpha is not always mathematically precise! Here is an easy and concerning way you can repro this:
I noticed that if you put this formula into WolframAlpha, it gives a wrong answer.
Input: 1’ 1” x 7’ 2.5”
Primary result: 1125 sq inch (correct)
Secondary result: 7.809 sq ft (WRONG)
The correct sq ft is 7.8125 (exact) or 7.813 (rounded)
Bug link:
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i2d=true&i=1%E2%80%99+1%E...
It looks like a rounding difference in the display. The exact answer is 1124.5, which when rounded up to 4 significant digits is 1125 sq inch. 7.809 sq ft is the correct answer in sq ft, again, rounded to 4 significant digits.
This is the decimal display of the closest float64 value to the exact rational answer of 2249/288 sq. ft (7 and 233/288 sq. ft., or 7 sq. ft. and 116.5 sq. inches).