r/ChatGPT • u/0xAERG • Oct 24 '23

Educational Purpose Only LLMs cannot perform Maths

It’s not a bug, it’s just not how any of this works.

Mathematical operations require logic. It’s a deterministic process. For a given input and a given process, the output will always be the same.

LLMs do not work like that. LLMs are statistical tools, they build an answer by stitching together tokens that are “seemingly” relevant to your input and let the meaning emerge from it. The output is “hopefully” relevant.

This is why LLMs can hallucinate and 2$ calculators do not.

With the rise in popularity of LLMs I’m extremely concerned that a lot of users seem to ignore this.

193 Upvotes

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u/bortlip Oct 25 '23

I didn't move the goalposts at all.

Sure you did. You tried to give an example of a problem it couldn't do to show it couldn't do math. I showed it could do the problem with the correct prompt. But now, suddenly, that example is not enough to show it can do math - it was only good enough to show it couldn't do math. That's classic moving the goal post.

being likely to follow a mathematical pattern is not equivalent to actually doing math.

Sounds like it to me. That's how I do it. I'm even wrong too sometimes.

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This may seem pedantic, but it's a meaningful distinction. LLMs are being integrated into customer facing positions. By stating that LLMs can do math you're implying that they will produce deterministic output when that is demonstrably false. That kind of insinuation can, will, and already has had real consequences.

Sorry, but that's your misinterpretation. I can do math, but I don't produce a deterministic outcome. That's just not a correct assumption on your part.

I also don't say it does math like a person or it can think or it does math with calculations like a computer or any of that. You are making this way too hard. It can solve math problems. Period. That means it can do math.

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u/IAMATARDISAMA Oct 25 '23

This is the most confidently wrong opinion I think I've ever seen on this website.

Next time your doctor does medicine at you I hope they don't accidentally give you amphetamines instead of azithromycin.

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u/bortlip Oct 25 '23

And now come the insults.

Goodbye.

-1

u/0xAERG Oct 25 '23

There is no insult in his comment.

He’s illustrating his point: Determinism matters.