alt Hacker NewsThis trick went viral on TikTok last week, and it has already been patched. To get a similar result now, try saying that the distance is 45 meters or feet.
The new one is with upside down glass: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP89Khv9t/
Replies
By "patched", you can't mean they added something to the internal prompt to show it how to answer this one specific question?!
I got the "you should walk" answer 4 out of 5 times with free ChatGPT, until I told it to, basically, "think carefully": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47040530
I just got the “you should walk” result on ChatGPT 5.2
"patched" = the answer is in search results
To me, the "patching" that is happening anytime some finds an absolutely glaring hole in how AIs work is so intellectually dishonest. It's the digital equivalent of house flippers slapping millennial gray paint on structural issues.
It can't math correctly, so they force it to use a completely different calculator. It can't count correctly, unless you route it to a different reasoning. It feels like every other week someone comes up with another basic human question that results in complete fucking nonsense.
I feel like this specific patching they do is basically lying to users and investors about capabilities. Why is this OK?
I was able to reproduce on ChatGPT with the exact same prompt, but not with the one I phrased myself initially. Which was interesting. I tried also changing the number and didn't get far with it.
Ah yes, one of those novelty reversible cups.
"Stupid Pencil Maker" by Shel Silverstein
Some dummy built this pencil wrong,
The eraser's down here where the point belongs,
And the point's at the top - so it's no good to me,
It's amazing how stupid some people can be.