General Discussion

Likely not but it is an interesting situation anyhow.

I recently asked ChatGPT a series of questions related to hydrogen/boron fusion and as part of one answer it calculated the amount of boron that would be needed to generate the world's current electricity consumption. The calculation was off by a factor of about 1,000.

I asked why the error and how could I trust anything else in the replies if it makes such simple errors. The reply was it was a result of how large language models work and, if you want precise calculations i.e. correct calculations, you have to specifically request it.

BTW, it also give wrong factual information, not related to calculations.

However, one thing I do find rather astonishing is how it will provide sophisticated computer programming code from a rather simple English description of what one wants the program to do and, it seems to be pretty dammed good at it. I have read that in some organizations, around 90% of the code produced is by AI and the programmer's task is mainly to go over and check the code for correctness. I'm not sure at all I would want to make a career of computer coding now as it looks like the demand for programmers might soon dramatically drop.