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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   36674 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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It actually can tell there are three R's in "strawberry". The actual log is hilarious, as it's struggling with the fact that every time it counts it finds three of them and goes, "Wait a minute, that doesn't seem right. Let me double-check the spelling of "strawberry.""

And it still can't solve this itself:

A farmer with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and two extra items. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the cabbage, or the goat would eat the wolf. How can they cross the river without anything being eaten?

After some extensive hinting it finally gets it:

Final Answer:

  • Farmer takes the goat and cabbage to the right bank.
  • Farmer returns alone to the left bank.
  • Farmer takes the wolf to the right bank.

UPD: I didn't enable "DeepThink" mode. It solves it correctly when I do, but the chain of reasoning it posts is so anxiety-ridden that is makes me nervous: https://pastebin.com/MfVufiE3

the wolf would eat the cabbage, or the goat would eat the wolf

At least when skynet harvests your skin for terminators you won't have to think "what did I ever do to you?!" Everyone's bullying the poor thing.

See also: https://xkcd.com/2945/

This problem is retarded. The farmer is allowed to carry 2 items which means that at any point he's leaving only at most one thing behind, which can't be eaten because there's nothing around to eat it. He can do literally anything he wants as long as he ensures that there's only one thing left on the bank he's setting off from at all time.

Like this also works:

Farmer takes wolf and goat to right bank

Farmer returns with wolf (or goat, what matters is he returns with one thing) to left bank

Farmer takes cabbage + thing he came with to right bank

Problem solved

The real problem is when the farmer is only allowed to carry one thing at a time.

The whole point is getting the LLM to recognize it's retarded, as you call it. Most LLMs see the words "riddle", "farmer", "wolf", "cabbage", "goat" and get into a reasoning rut so deep you can't get them to realize it's a trivial question.

The thing is, lots of humans react this way as well, unless you actually point out the difference. We’re pattern recognisers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that LLMs do this any more than it’s a bad thing they mostly ignore my typos.

Why doesn't the farmer just buy a bigger boat; is he stupid?

This problem is retarded.

It sounds like (a derivative of) one of those easier brainteasers found in investment banking/management consulting/quantitative finance interview guides, where a key difference would be the carnivore (at least stereotypically) eating the the cabbage. The problem, as stated, is also Problematic and full of yikes for that it implies that wolves and goats are items, which is highly de-animalizing to our furry friends in considering them as inanimate objects.

But the cabbage is eaten by the goat?

the wolf would eat the cabbage, or the goat would eat the wolf.

Not this goat!

It's a trick question.

No, by the wolf. The wolf is eaten by the goat. Are you an LLM?

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