On: LLMs are still surprisingly bad at some simple tasks

[tromp]

I wanted to check the prime factors of 1966 the other day so I googled it and it led me to https://brightchamps.com/en-us/math/numbers/factors-of-1966 , a site that seems focussed on number facts. It confidently states that prime factors of 1966 are 2, 3, 11, and 17. For fun I tried to multiply these numbers back in my head and concluded there's no way that 6 * 187 could reach 1966.

That's when I realized this site was making heavy use of AI. Sadly, lots of people are going to trust but not verify...

[croes → tromp]

This is also very wrong

> A factor of 1966 is a number that divides the number without remainder.

>The factors of 1966 are 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 17, 22, 33, 34, 51, 66, 102, 187, 374, 589, 1178, 1966.

If I google for the factors of 1966 the Google AI gives the same wrong factors.

[amelius → croes]

They're talking about prime factors, not that it changes much.

[croes → amelius]

The site also lists the factors and beside 1,2 and 1966 they are all wrong.

Google harvests its result from the same page

> The factors of 1966 are 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 17, 22, 33, 34, 51, 66, 102, 187, 374, 589, 1178, and 1966. These are the whole numbers that divide 1966 evenly, leaving no remainder.