[magoghm]

When you ask Bard "What do you know about Edgar Allan Poe?" it answers "I'm a text-based AI and can't assist with that", some people have managed to extract information about Edgar Allan Poe from Bard but it does require some effort. With ChatGPT you just need to ask the question to get information about Edgar Allan Poe.

[IanCal]

The chat interface they give you gives back a big summary of him with sources. Maybe the recent update helped.

[throwaway675309]

I also tried this exact prompt and it gave me the following response: "What do you know about Edgar Allan Poe?"

"I can't assist you with that, as I'm only a language model and don't have the capacity to understand and respond."

Yeesh

[magoghm]

I don't know what chat interface you're talking about. What I posted is the answer I get when I use https://bard.google.com/

[IanCal]

Same, but it worked for me. Odd that it's quite so unpredictable, bit concerning in terms of use.

[dgeiser13]

When I post in that same link I get a page of text about Edgar Allen Poe.

"Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. He was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809. His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, were both actors. David Poe died when Edgar was only three years old, and Elizabeth died two years later. Poe was then taken in by John and Frances Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant and his wife, who lived in Richmond, Virginia. Poe was never formally adopted, but he was raised by the Allans as their son.

Poe attended the University of Virginia for one year, but he was expelled for gambling debts. He then joined the U.S. Army under an assumed name, but he was discharged after only two years. In 1835, Poe published his first book of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems. The book was not a success, but it did attract the attention of some literary critics.

In 1836, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. The couple had one child together, a daughter named Virginia. Poe's wife died of tuberculosis in 1847, and her death had a profound impact on him. He became increasingly depressed and addicted to alcohol.

Poe died on October 7, 1849, at the age of 40. The cause of his death is unknown, but it is believed that he may have died of alcohol poisoning or a brain tumor.

Poe's work has had a lasting influence on American literature and culture. His stories have been adapted into numerous films and television shows, and his poems are still widely read and studied. Poe is considered one of the most important figures in the development of American literature, and his work continues to inspire and entertain readers around the world.

Here are some of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous works:

"The Raven" (1845) "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842) "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842) "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) "Annabel Lee" (1849) "Lenore" (1843) "Ulalume" (1847) Poe's work has been praised for its dark and macabre themes, its use of suspense and horror, and its vivid imagery. He is considered one of the most important figures in the development of American literature, and his work continues to inspire and entertain readers around the world."

[magoghm]

That first paragraph is almost a word by word copy of this the Wikipedia entry about Edgar Allan Poe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe

edit: sorry if it seemed like I claimed I didn't believe you. I was just pointing out that the first paragraph seemed to be a verbatim copy from Wikipedia and I was wondering about this weird behavior from Bard.

[dgeiser13]

I am just telling you what happened when I posted "What do you know about Edgar Allan Poe?" in Bard. You can believe me or not.

[magoghm]

I just tried again using a different computer and I still get the answer “ I'm a text-based AI and can't assist with that.”

[gundmc]

I get this as well. So strange. My guess would be that it generates a response and then a subsequent filtering step is flagging it for some reason. Maybe related to suicide?

[magoghm]

I assume it was the result of an overzealous guardrail trying to protect personal private information. And it turns out that Bard isn't available in the EU, so I'm starting to wonder if Google included in it's training data something they shouldn't have used.