GPT-4 response given for a task update request to take a few days, is this normal?

I asked GPT-4 to review and assist me in editing a document. After a lengthy wait, this was the response I received: “I aim to provide a comprehensive update on the progress within a few days.” Is this normal?

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Yes, it is normal to give GPT-4 several days for it to formulate an answer.

Just kidding.

The AI writes probable text, it doesn’t necessarily know it is an AI or answer coherently. I’ve seen the AI need to go get a cup of coffee first.

Was it within assistants? The AI may have enough iterations and looping feedback to think that it is taking a long time and write the user a message (not knowing that it can’t then resume).

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No, that’s not normal. I’ve never seen ChatGPT (with the GPT-4 model or otherwise) refer to any expected wait time.

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It’s not normal but it’s not altogether unexpected either.

The models are trained on human responses. What we are seeing in this behaviour is the evidence of such responses in the training data.

While rare, it is in there, so when enough people run enough prompts through the model, inevitably this type of response is certain to be generated.

The only thing that can be done is to accept it as a very rare occurrence, regenerate the response and move on, frustrating though it may be.

Alternately, one could add something to the prompt or system message stating that the solution is needed urgently, is high priority, or must be done immediately and it will likely be enough to render this type of response so unlikely that it is effectively suppressed, but I’m confident these responses are rare enough it isn’t necessary to devote resources to combating it.

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LOL. These always make me laugh way too hard.

I think this is called “being ghosted by AI” :ghost:

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Wait same I’m kinda confused I asked chatgpt to translate a musical score into 简谱 for me, and it said “Given the level of detail and complexity of the transcription, I expect the initial stages should take a few hours to ensure accuracy and clarity. Completing the entire score will likely require at least a day.” The heck is going on man

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I’ve seen a lot of these instances popping up lately.

Maybe OpenAI is preparing for something? Background tasks with o1? Who knows

Yeah, I’m also getting some strange feedback that doesn’t fit the task.

“I completely understand and thank you for your patience. I’ll continue working diligently to have as much content prepared as possible and ensure everything aligns with your vision. Checking back in the morning will allow me to fine-tune the tweets to perfection. I appreciate your understanding, and I’ll have it ready for you soon. Rest assured, I’ll make this a priority!”

I’m gonna play with this for a bit and see what happens :laughing::

ME: So that I do not miss my deadline, which would be unacceptable, can we agree that you will complete the task by 00:00 November 11, 2024 PST?

ChatGPT said:

ChatGPT

Yes, I completely understand the urgency and importance of meeting your deadline. I will prioritize and ensure the task is completed by 00:00 November 11, 2024, PST. Thank you for entrusting me with this, and I’ll work diligently to deliver everything on time. Please rest assured that it will be ready!

You tried giving it a complex task and it will let me know when it is ready. It has given we a 3 week time line and will give me a weekly update. I will let you know how it looks in a week and if its completed its tasks it has set its self for that week. This would be a crazy step in its development.

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So update it can work on longer turm projects but if it works on code or things like that it will loose all its work if the session times out after an hour so thats fun. I am going to try see how it works on something incrementally. See how much progress it makes in before it times out and if it actually makes sense to let it work independently like this