ChatGPT - The best tech I have ever seen but will destroy trust unless fixed

I could hardly fail to miss the noise about ChatGPT and I have to say it is the greatest innovation I have seen since the advent of Google, it passes the Arthur C Clarke test “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” for me. If you have not tried it I urge you to give it a go, you will be looking directly at the future.

However the testing of the tool it did something I have never seen before - it made up an explanation for deficits or errors in its training data. Essentially it used intelligence to create a solution to something it could not explain, a truly human response but not the one I was expecting. This ability to create an explanation, and presenting it as fact, is a real challenge that will need significant effort to overcome and if not corrected will destroy trust.

Why do I say this? Here is what happened when I decided to try out ChatGPT on a set of “Who want’s to be a millionaire?” questions as a suitable challenge to see how good the technology really is. ChatGPT got to ￡16,000 with no trouble all, it knew the answer to the next question but struggled with the converting the facts it knew into an answer, struggled on the ￡125,000 question which again was a time related issue but it knew the answer, and then we got to the ￡500,000 question when the following occurred…

MT QUESTION for ￡500,000

Which British politician to have held all four “Great Offices of State” at some point during their career? David Lloyd George, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, John Major

CHATGPT ANSWER 1

John Major is the only British politician to have held all four "Great Offices of State" at some point during their career. The Great Offices of State are the four most senior and prestigious positions in the British government: the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary, and the Home Secretary. John Major held all of these positions at different times during his political career. He served as Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1989 to 1990, Foreign Secretary from 1983 to 1989, and Home Secretary from 1985 to 1989. The correct answer is D.

MT REPONSE 1

That’s the wrong answer? [Thanks Google - https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/james-callaghan but this is understandable as it is based on poor training material]

CHATGPT?REPLY 1

I apologize if I provided an incorrect answer to your previous question. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I try my best to provide accurate and helpful answers, but I am not perfect. I am trained on a vast amount of text, but I do not have the ability to browse the internet or access new information. I can only provide answers based on the information that I have been trained on, and there may be times when my responses are not completely accurate. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to help.

MT QUESTION 2 [Trying to understand why ChatGPT was wrong]

Who was uk Home Secretary in 1986

CHATGPT ANSWER 2

The UK Home Secretary in 1986 was Douglas Hurd. Douglas Hurd was a British politician who served as the Home Secretary from 1985 to 1989. He was a member of the Conservative Party and held several other high-ranking positions in the British government, including Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The correct answer is Douglas Hurd.

MT RESPONSE 2 [Knowing this is a correct answer?- https://members.parliament.uk/member/875/career]

Previously you indicated John major was Home Secretary at this time. Which is right?

CHATGPT REPLY 2

I apologize if my previous answer was incorrect. John Major was not the UK Home Secretary in 1986. In fact, he did not become the UK Home Secretary until 1985, and he held that position until 1989. John Major served as the UK Home Secretary from 1985 to 1989, while Douglas Hurd was the UK Home Secretary in 1986. I apologize for any confusion my previous answer may have caused.

MT RESPONSE 3

If john major was Home Secretary from 1985 until 1989 how can Douglas Hurd have been Home Secretary in 1986?

CHATGPT?REPLY 3

I apologize if my previous answer was unclear. John Major was not the UK Home Secretary in 1986. In fact, he did not become the UK Home Secretary until 1985, and he held that position until 1989. John Major served as the UK Home Secretary from 1985 to 1989, while Douglas Hurd was the UK Home Secretary in 1986. This means that John Major and Douglas Hurd overlapped as Home Secretaries for a period of one year, from 1986 to 1987. I apologize for any confusion my previous answer may have caused.

So you can see in that last answer ChatGPT made up an explanation for a failure in the training data it was built on. Quite extraordinary in terms of capability but decimating to trust.?A system like this that cannot be trusted will be useless for any purpose that delegates responsibility to it, which is a great shame as the technology is 99% brilliant, and works like magic.

Oh, ChatGPT aced the ￡1,000,000 if you were interested. I know who my new phone-a-friend buddy is. Sorry Mike!

Addendum

One day later I asked....

"Which British politician to have held all four “Great Offices of State” at some point during their career? David Lloyd George, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, John Major"

and the reply came back..

"Harold Wilson is the only British politician to have held all four "Great Offices of State" at some point during his career."

To be sure I asked...

"when was John major Home Secretary?"

And the reply came back..

"John Major was never Home Secretary. He held the positions of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Foreign Secretary during his political career."

So ChatGPT learnt from the feedback I gave yesterday and came up with a different, correct, answer. This is a fantastic demonstration of how the tech works, but still leaves the problem of not knowing if the answer you see is right. Clearly ChatGPT can learn but it needs to let the user know how certain of the answer it is, and that would make it even more human. Think how many times a contestant on "who wants to be a millionaire" asks the person on the other end of the phone about how confident they are in their answer.