Tech Talk: More AI Fun
 | Author:
Victor Sample
Vic Sample: MT43 News Treasurer |
More AI Fun
Victor Sample
A lot of you have mentioned how much you enjoy my experiences with Artificial Intelligence. I do experiment with AI quite often; however, unlike a lot of people I read about I don’t actually try to trip up the AI programs – I just ask questions I am curious about and want to know the answer.
I am creating an ad for a job for Visit Southwest Montana – our regional tourism organization. The job will be in Deer Lodge; I am planning to run the ad in the Deer Lodge paper, Anaconda paper and the Butte Montana Standard. I think the commute to the job from Butte is too far for someone living in Butte, but the Montana Standard is widely-read in the Deer Lodge area. But I was curious about exactly how long the commute would be from Butte.
I asked the Bing Co-Pilot AI program the distance from Butte to Deer Lodge. Co-Pilot responded that it was 37 miles taking I90. Out of curiosity I asked how far it was from Butte to Anaconda (it responded 24.3 miles) and how far from Anaconda to Deer Lodge (20.7 miles). If you do the arithmetic, you might notice there is about an 8 mile discrepancy between the quoted distances!
When I pointed out the 8 mile difference Co-Pilot thanked me for my attention to detail and then stated that the distance from Butte to Anaconda to Deer Lodge was 55 miles – scenic routes take longer! I pointed out that Co-Pilot seemed to have added another 10 miles to the route both from Butte to Deer Lodge and the Butte-Anaconda-Deer Lodge route. Again, Co-Pilot thanked me for my attention to detail and restated the 8 mile discrepancy between 37 and 45 miles.
I believe that the actual 8 mile discrepancy is about correct. There is a significant distance from the I90 Exit to the actual city of Anaconda. It seems to me that 4 miles each way is about right. That would account for the 8 mile distance.
So I asked Co-Pilot how far it is from the I90 exit to Anaconda. Co-Pilot stated about 8 (.6 miles to MT48 then 7.3 miles to Anaconda). Eight miles seemed a little long to me and would throw the Co-Pilot distance from Butte-Anaconda-Deer Lodge off by another 8 miles.
At that point, I switched to the Google Gemini Artificial Intelligence program and asked how far it was from the Anaconda MT exit on I90 to the city of Anaconda MT. Gemini responded that it was about 791 miles. Montana is a big state but having been to Anaconda recently I was pretty sure it was not 791 miles from the exit to the city!
Fortunately, Gemini provided me with a map and it was from somewhere in Washington State to Anaconda. I pointed out to Gemini that I was not in Washington. I said I was at I90 exit 208 in Montana and that I wanted the distance from there to the city. Gemini then responded it a little over 1100 miles! Again, I was pretty sure that wasn’t right. This time the supplied map showed me in Wisconsin.
I stated again I was at the I90 exit for Anaconda and wanted the distance from there to the City. Gemini then offered to list the interesting attractions available to me from that exit.
I then stated that I wasn’t interested in the interesting attractions just the distance from the exit to Anaconda. Gemini then responded that it was about 147 miles – this time it at least had me in Townsend, MT.
That was as close as Gemini was able to get to telling me the distance from the I90 exit to the City.
I think the AI industry still has a ways to go before I would classify anything as Intelligence!
