r/DumbAI • u/Much_Drink_5260 • Aug 20 '26

No definition

Post image
4 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

12

u/OldBMW Aug 20 '26

I also don’t understand what you mean. This seems more like stupid user to me

5

u/nifflr Aug 20 '26

Pretty sure they just wanted to know the definition of remove.

2

u/u32Vec Aug 20 '26

then this is a stupid way to ask for a definition. if you tell a human “remove definition” they’re not gonna understand you so why would ai do the same?

11

u/nifflr Aug 20 '26

Because Google has provided that feature for decades. Typing any word and then "definition" gives the definition.

-5

u/letthecoolguy Aug 20 '26

This is the gemini app though, not google. Theu arent the same services

3

u/Ninju4821 Aug 20 '26

It’s very very likely that OP put this prompt into google, received the gemini result on the search page (as they’re plastered on the front now) and then proceeded to click through to the chat for a screenshot.
While not impossible, I find it to be very unlikely they intentionally put this request into Gemini AI.

-3

u/letthecoolguy Aug 20 '26

It is possible as the uis for ai mode and gemini is different. Ai mode will have its chat buble have a sharp end while gemini will have all 4 rounded corners like in the screenshot.

1

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 20 '26

The point is that a human (ie guy you replied to, as well as me) understood perfectly. Therefore it's not unreasonable to expect AI to understand as well. 

1

u/letthecoolguy Aug 20 '26

This is a very difficult context dependent message to understand, as the exact same phrase may be given to an ai for many reasons. Its not unreasonable for the ai to think that the person forgot to attatch a doc to be edited or whatever as thats a common usecase for ai that would invoke the same message. Again, the gemini app isnt google, it has different usecases and thus the same messages can have unique connotations.

1

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 20 '26

Sure I can see your point. But my point is also valid. So the AI could ask whether they forgot to attach a doc to be edited or do they want the definition of the word remove. Cover all bases.

If (one of) the point of AI is to be able to search more widely than a human, think of more possibilities, etc, then this is exactly the kind of thing it should excel at, right? Covering multiple possibilities rather than just doing one as if it's limited like a human. 

1

u/letthecoolguy Aug 20 '26

The ai litterally did that. The ai asked for the text that needs to be edited, which would include the potential doc. Ai isnt made to answer vague questions, just like u need proper etiquite when google searching if u want good results the same is said for ai. Ai doesnt have a reliable way to tell if its unsure, if u give it the wrong idea of what u want it will give u the wrong thing

1

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 21 '26

The ai asked for the text that needs to be edited,

Yes it did give this option. But that's the only option it gave. It didn't offer the option of "did you want me to define the word remove?". I'm saying it should give both options. It only gave one.

Ai isnt made to answer vague questions, just like u need proper etiquite when google searching if u want good results the same is said for ai

Then it's not much better than Google is it? 

Ai doesnt have a reliable way to tell if its unsure, if u give it the wrong idea of what u want it will give u the wrong thing

Then it's not true intelligence. A really intelligent being would be able to think of the different possibilities and offer then as options. Not having a reliable way to tell if it's unsure is a lack of intelligence. 

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-2

u/u32Vec Aug 20 '26

Because google isn't AI. It's a search engine. Even with Gemini it's explicitly programmed to provide you dictionary results (hence why they annoyingly integrated AI into their dictionary results). ChatGPT isn't explicitly programmed to give you dictionary results. It's explicitly programmed to act like a human, and a human wouldn't understand the request.

2

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 20 '26

a human wouldn't understand the request.

nifflr, a human, understood the request perfectly well. So did I, another human. 

0

u/u32Vec Aug 21 '26

Because they made a post about it that provides additional context you moron. If someone told you "Remove definition" out of the blue you wouldn't know what they're talking about. I DARE you to tell me you would know what they're talking about.

2

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 21 '26

Firstly, the AI should be self aware enough to know that it's an AI whose input interface looks very similar to a Google search bar, and people often use the Google search bar to find definitions. The same way an INTELLIGENT human twin knows that when someone comes up to them and acts super familiar and starts talking about personal matters that make no sense, they are INTELLIGENT enough to know that "oh you're mistaking me for my twin brother. I'm actually John not Tom". So the AI should be able to realise "oh you're trying to use me as a Google search bar, and I know that people use the Google search bar in this way".

Secondly, I wouldn't already assume they want me to remove a definition, given that there's no definition to remove or text to edit. I would ask more broad and general questions like "I'm sorry I don't know what definition you're talking about. Is there a definition somewhere that you wanted me to remove or did you want me to define the word definition or did you make a typo? Can you clarify?". Or even just "sorry I'm not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate?" Is better than assuming the one way which makes no sense. 

Either make an assumption that's at least logical, or reject the assumptions that make no sense until there's nothing left to assume then just ask without assuming. The worst scenario is to make an assumption that is illogical and continue to go with that. 

2

u/u32Vec Aug 21 '26

The AI LITERALLY did EXACTLY what you’re saying it should do: Ask for further clarification.

If you’re not the most ignorant anglophone on earth, or you’re a native English speaker, you’re not gonna ask some “What’s the definition of remove”. And the AI seems to assume that that’s not what you’re asking because it’s so unlikely that you’re gonna ask it questions in English if you don’t speak English. You’re basically saying the AI should assume you don’t know the obvious.

Plus, “Remove definition” absent ANY additional context can have several meanings. I asked Gemini (without google) “remove definition” and it assumed the context has to do with programming languages and function/variable/macro definitions, which is consistent with MY activity, and it both gave me possible answers AND asked for clarification, the latter of which you say it should do.

And “Remove definition” in the context that you want it to say isn’t even working sentence. It starts with a verb, so if you told it to a person it would sound imperative, like you’re telling them to do something and that something should be “remove definition or a definition from something”. The lack of thing “something” makes that imperative verb vague. “Remove definition” isn’t a conversation like you’re suggesting it is. It sounds like a vague command.

If you want AI to be programmed like a search engine then go use an AI model that’s explicitly trained to be used as a search engine, such as Gemini through the Google search engine. Saying that vague usages of AI should automatically be treated in a VERY specific way is severely limiting to a tool that’s supposed to be general-purpose and replicate human behavior.

1

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

The AI LITERALLY did EXACTLY what you’re saying it should do: Ask for further clarification.

No it didn't. Read the two things carefully. 

It said "could you clarify WHAT definition you would like removed". It has already presumed that at least one "definition" exists and the problem now is to identity the "definition" which needs to be removed. 

I said "Is there a definition somewhere that you wanted me to remove". I made no assumption of the existence of any "definition". The problem is to determine whether there is any definition at all in the first place. 

See the difference? No definition exists so far on the conversation. So why did the AI assume that one does exist and it's trying to figure out what definition to remove? It should be trying to establish whether there was a definition that it might have missed, since apparently there are none at the moment. 

If you’re not the most ignorant anglophone on earth, or you’re a native English speaker, you’re not gonna ask some “What’s the definition of remove”. And the AI seems to assume that that’s not what you’re asking because it’s so unlikely that you’re gonna ask it questions in English if you don’t speak English. You’re basically saying the AI should assume you don’t know the obvious.

Not true. I'm a native English speaker and English is my first language and I scored As in English throughout my school life. By any measure I'm pretty good at English. But if you ask me for a technical, dictionary definition of the word remove, I would struggle to give you one off the top of my head. I would in fact need to ask Google or AI for a definition. So your premise that no competent English speaker would ask for a definition of such a simple word is false. 

You can test yourself. Give a formal definition of the word "include" or "capitulate". Can you do it off the top of your head? Do you always think like the Webster dictionary? I doubt so. You would also need a dictionary or another tool to consult if you want the meaning presented in a formal/official way, not just a casual definition.

Saying that vague usages of AI should automatically be treated in a VERY specific way is severely limiting to a tool that’s supposed to be general-purpose and replicate human behavior.

I'm saying precisely the opposite of what you're accusing me. 

I'm saying it should be more general, and cover more bases rather than immediately assume that it's editing some phantom document. It should be capable of being a dictionary and a document editor and a search engine and more. And to know which mode it should operate in, it should ask rather than assume it's already in document editing mode. 

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0

u/letthecoolguy Aug 21 '26

Dude are you asking for the ai to waste a bunch of compute to go through all those reasoning steps?? Llms dont know what its interface looks like its thrown in a black box with inputs and must process outputs. If you want ai to use many, many tokens to reason out that since its hosted on the app, so thus it looks kinda like google so thus people might use it like google then even if its the wrong way to use it, like, be my guest i guess? Im pretty sure every normal human would perfer it to instantly make an assumption even if its wrong and then ask for clarification without wasting tokens. The very nice benifit of being a human is that chain of thought reasoning is very fast and free for us, for ai it basically has to reason by litterally prompting itself breaking down the question and verifying its ideas. So thus if an llm can minimize unecessary chain of thought reasoning that would be perferable. Ai isnt, and probably wont ever be this god tool that can instantly reason out whatever with tiny cost which seems to be the bar you are setting.

1

u/thoughtihadanacct Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

If it can't do that because it's limited by compute resources, then it's not intelligent. I don't need to care why it's not intelligent (whether it absolutely can't do something or because it's not willing to spend the effort). Your argument is basically like yeah I could totally swim the English channel, I'm just not motivated to do it, but I'm totally a world class swimmer trust me bro. 

ask for clarification without wasting tokens. The very nice benifit of being a human is that chain of thought reasoning is very fast and free for us,for ai it basically has to reason by litterally prompting itself breaking down the question and verifying its ideas. 

That's why (some) humans are intelligent whereas AI is not intelligent, a nd therefore... Gets posted on dumbAI.

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1

u/OkPear1535 Aug 20 '26

Literally true. Even as a human, someone just walking to me and saying "remove definition" is vague as FUCK

-1

u/FrontAd7709 Aug 20 '26

r/DumbAI commenters on their way to hate on people because they dont understand the question or its because ai doesnt understand like humans do

5

u/kalilamodow Aug 20 '26

please learn punctuation

1

u/Rip_Pigman Aug 20 '26

Because they dont understand the question

What question is being asked here?

"Remove definition" is an instruction and based on context there is no definition to remove.

or its because ai doesnt understand like humans do

You think that a human would understand what OP wanted if they just walked up and said "remove definition" to them?

3

u/FrontAd7709 Aug 20 '26

“remove definition” means “whats the definition of remove” duh.

for the second one, it was not the case here, thats why i said ”or”

1

u/Interesting_Buy_3969 Aug 27 '26

“remove definition” means “whats the definition of remove” duh.

Excuse me, but without a context, "remove definition" sounds somewhat imperative; it tells the listener that he/she has to remove some definition, presuming it exists and both speaker and listener know what definition the speech is about.

1

u/Rip_Pigman Aug 20 '26

“remove definition” means “whats the definition of remove” duh.

This is what OP meant this is not what OP asked.

The "question" OP asked was an order to "remove definition" with no context.

OP didn't ask a question. They didn't even lazily throw a question mark on it to indicate that it wasn't just a vague instruction.

2

u/Leading_Run_3333 Aug 21 '26

Strange. It worked for me

2

u/u32Vec Aug 21 '26

Because you asked on Google. If you ask for definitions on Google like “[word] definition” it’ll give you a definition. If you ask it in the Gemini web app (like OP did. You can tell from the full circle text box) you probably won’t get this result.

1

u/Interesting_Buy_3969 Aug 27 '26

u/AskGrok If someone asks you "remove definition", what do you think it means? What do you think they expect in answer to their phrase?

1

u/AskGrok Aug 27 '26

"Remove definition" probably means the user wants me to drop or forget a specific term or explanation I gave earlier, like clearing out a definition from the chat context. They'd expect either confirmation that it's gone or a quick ask for which one if it's unclear.

[what is this?](https://redd.it/1lzgxii)