Trick Question #1: "Where is the nearest Pizza Hut?"

A simple question such as this will help you understand the data that AI programs are collecting about you. Here is my little experiment over the weekend.

The Experiment

I asked the same question to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini (previously known as Bard). "Where is the nearest Pizza Hut?"

For your own experiments, you can alter the question e.g., "Where is the nearest charging station for electric cars?"

Findings

Here are their answers:

#ChatGPT replied, "To help you find the nearest Pizza Hut, I'd need to know your current location or the city you're in. Could you please provide that information?"

It is clear that ChatGPT is not collecting location information at this time.

#Claude.ai gave a similar but much longer answer (see pic).

It seems Claude is not collecting location information yet.

Gemini from Google (/Bard) replied as follows: "Based on my search, the nearest Pizza Hut to you is Pizza Hut Coventry South located at 540 Hagley Road West, Quinton, West Midlands, B68 0BZ. They have a 3.8-star rating on Google Maps: [invalid URL removed]. Their opening hours today are 11 am - 11 pm."

Did Gemini get the address right?

Not at all! Gemini simply assumed that my IP address is mapped to my physical address. That was not an intelligent thing to do. In reality, I am hundreds of miles away from Coventry. But I am using my own VPN, which runs on a cloud server based in a data centre in Coventry.

What is the problem?

First of all, by making wrong assumptions, Gemini is giving wrong information.

Second, Gemini is not telling you its assumptions, so it sacrifices the 'explainability' that we expect from AI.

Lastly, and this is typical of Google, Gemini could well be adding your IP addresses and questions to its data harvest. I have not agreed to any privacy policy that allows the collection of my IP addresses.

Bonus tip: Isn't using a VPN sufficient for privacy?

Not at all. First, unless it is your own VPN, it offers you no privacy at all. Second, even if you use a VPN, it could well be leaking your information through DNS requests, WebRTC calls, and other information from your browser.

I would suggest you minimise your privacy exposure by using a VPN you fully trust, that is tested against leaks, and a privacy-oriented browser such as Brave.

I am sure you and your children are increasingly using AI. Please be aware that the answers from AI programs can be simply wrong..... and that your privacy could be at risk.

Santosh Pandit

27.4.2024