Understanding ChatGPT/AI

Quite a few posts about using ChatGPT to figure out mathematical equations, such as computing ratings. This is not one of its strong suits... however, to understand why, you need to understand how AI works.

Essentially, you're giving it some input (asking it a question) and it's calculating what sort of answer makes the most sense based on established patterns (not math.)

There's a "Chinese library" analogy:

You're trapped in a Chinese library, filled with thousands of books written in Chinese. You do not know the language at all.

Someone from the outside begins passing notes beneath the door, written in Chinese. You look at the symbols on the notes, comparing them against many of the books in the library. You note that when a particular group of symbols is strung together in a sentence, it's often followed by another particular group of symbols. Thus, you write down the second group of symbols and pass them back underneath the door.

The person on the other side, who knows Chinese, reads your message and responds with another sentence consisting of a different group of symbols. By doing more research, you determine that the response to these symbols, including the proximity of the first symbols, is often followed by yet another string. You thus respond again, and again.

The person on the other side is receiving coherent messages, based upon patterns of speech. You, meanwhile, still don't know any Chinese, but you catch on to the patterns... when you see group A of symbols, the most common response is group B. You're able to carry on a "conversation" with the person on the other side of the door nevertheless. That's generally how AI works.