Mistake in chat GPT - so I found this error in Chat GPT. I was asking to build up a work schedule for 45 hour week up to six days a week. The chat was making this mistake adding more hours

ChatGPT
1

Hi, so I found this error in Chat GPT.
I was asking to build up a work schedule for 45 hour week up to six days a week. The chat was making this mistake adding more hours. It looked like this:

“I apologize for the confusion in my previous responses. Thank you for clarifying. Here’s the corrected work schedule with 45 hours of work over six days, along with the specified break times:

Monday to Saturday Schedule:

  • Day 1 (Monday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 4:45 pm

  • Day 2 (Tuesday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 4:45 pm

  • Day 3 (Wednesday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 4:45 pm

  • Day 4 (Thursday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 4:45 pm

  • Day 5 (Friday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 4:45 pm

  • Day 6 (Saturday):

    • Start Time: 7:00 am
    • First Break: 10:00 am - 10:15 am (15 minutes)
    • Lunch Break: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 minutes)
    • Second Break: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm (15 minutes)
    • End Time: 2:45 pm

I apologize for any confusion caused earlier, and I appreciate your patience. This schedule should now accurately meet your requirement of working 45 hours over six days, with the specified break times.”

So each time I was informing him about a mistake. And he kept making it wrong. I even tried to explain to him how many hours is in a day and how how many minutes in a hour. I explained him that you need 7,5 hours a day for six days to have 45 hours working week. He still was making the same mistake. He said it was due to miscalculation and he was sure that the data base has no mistakes.

2

ChatGPT is a large language model. It generates plausible sequences of text by choosing among a selection of candidates for the most likely next tokens based on the tokens provided and the tokens generated thus far.

It will always find tasks like this to be challenging, because it cannot “do” math in any real sense.

3

Yup. It’s pretty bizarre though as it might do better with spoken maths.

4

One thing you can do to help it along is to guide it through breaking down the task into smaller, discrete tasks.

Have it set a number of hours for each day. Have it determine if there needs to be a break in the schedule for each day and, if so, how long it should be. Select a start time each day, then figure out when the break should be if there is one, then figure out the end time.

Giving it this type of structure within which to work is called chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting. Most users, in most cases, see tremendous gains in ChatGPT’s ability to successfully complete a task when some form of CoT is employed.

It might seem strange to need to spoon feed the model like this because it can appear brilliant at times, but in many ways it’s like a child. Meeting the model where it is at, understanding it’s strengths and weaknesses and operating within a framework that respects those will keep everyone happy.

In time I’m sure the models will improve to the point that this type of hand holding will not be needed, but for now you’ll get better results more quickly and have a better overall experience if you also adapt yourself to the tool.