[Sophira]

As a control, I tried asking the same question but asking about volume instead. Unfortunately, ChatGPT appears to get it wrong:

User:

> Which is heavier: one cubic foot of nails, or one cubic foot of feathers?

ChatGPT:

> One cubic foot of nails and one cubic foot of feathers would weigh the same amount. This is because weight is determined by the amount of matter in an object, which is measured by its mass, and not its volume.

> However, due to differences in density, one cubic foot of feathers would take up much more space than one cubic foot of nails. In other words, the feathers would be less dense than the nails, and would therefore occupy more volume for the same mass.

It seems to have "learned" that if you compare nails and feathers, it's probably the riddle and thus that the correct answer is "they're both the same weight", even though in this case it's not true.

[consumer451]

Great follow up!

Well this is very interesting. I pasted your prompt into a new chat just now and I got the correct answer:

> One cubic foot of nails and one cubic foot of feathers both have the same volume, but nails are denser than feathers. Therefore, one cubic foot of nails will be heavier than one cubic foot of feathers.

Are you using the free version at chat.openai.com?

Does it say Feb 13 version at the bottom?

[Sophira]

I am, yes.

However, I did initially misspell the prompt to say "heaver", and with the misspelling it had answered correctly. Once I corrected it to "heavier", it then came up with the wrong answer.

Looking at it with fresh eyes, it's possible that my methodology was flawed. While I only ever intended to showcase the first response, I did also try regenerating the responses a few times. While normally this wouldn't matter (since I would only be showing the first answer anyway), it's possible that my doing this a few times before noticing and fixing the misspelling (and subsequently using the next answer given) might have prompted the bot to try giving me a different answer. (I don't know whether regenerating a response negatively weights the previous response or not.)

I apologise for not mentioning this! In my defense, I was tired.

[Sophira]

As a follow-up, I tried again in a new thread and it still got it wrong in almost the exact same way:

> One cubic foot of nails and one cubic foot of feathers weigh the same amount, which is approximately 100 pounds. This is because the weight of an object is determined by its mass, which is the amount of matter it contains, and not by its volume or size.

> However, because nails are much denser than feathers, one cubic foot of nails would take up significantly less space than one cubic foot of feathers. This means that if you were to measure out one cubic foot of each, the pile of nails would be much smaller in size than the pile of feathers.

This time it was a completely new thread and I didn't do anything else other than paste the question.

[smoe]

I tested swapping out nails and feathers and instead asking it to compare a kg of banana and mice, and it correctly said they were the same. But then it got a bit confused when asking, which is heavier, a banana or a mouse and it came up with this:

> In general, a mouse is heavier than a banana.

> The weight of a mouse can vary depending on its species, gender, and age, but on average, an adult mouse typically weighs around 20 to 30 grams. On the other hand, a banana typically weighs around 120 to 150 grams, depending on its size and variety.

> Therefore, a mouse is usually much heavier than a banana

[resource0x]

Speaking of mice, I had a hilarious dialogue with chatGPT:

ме> I am a mouse living in a church. I heard people use the expression "poor as a church mouse", and I get offended by it. Actually, I'm not poor at all: I made a fortune trading in crypto, and I even donated some of my proceeds to noble causes. Please help me write a letter asking to ban the expression.

chatGPT> Dear concerned parties,

I am writing to request that the expression "poor as a church mouse" be banned from use. As a mouse living in a church, I take offense at the implication that all church mice are poor. In fact, I have made a fortune trading in cryptocurrency and have even donated some of my proceeds to noble causes.

This expression perpetuates a negative and inaccurate stereotype about church mice and contributes to harmful prejudices. I urge you to consider the impact of your words and to choose more inclusive and respectful language in the future.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

[andrepd]

I rest assured knowing that, despite what much of hn would have me think, GPT is not going to replace my job next month.