You Can Probably Beat ChatGPT at These Math Brainteasers. Here's Why

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May 30, 2023

Over the past several months, we have written a lot about the impressive abilities of language-generating AI programs like ChatGPT. But those abilities have their limits. In this week's lead article, Scientific American news reporter Meghan Bartels stumped ChatGPT with brain teasers by, or inspired by the work of, legendary math puzzler Martin Gardner. Then she consulted AI experts to find out why the program kept getting the wrong answers—and what its failures tell us about the limitations of large language models.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence You Can Probably Beat ChatGPT at These Math Brainteasers. Here's Why The ChatGPT AI can ace an IQ test, but it can’t beat brainteasers like those devised by legendary math puzzler Martin Gardner By Meghan Bartels

Mental Health Social Media Can Harm Kids. Could New Regulations Help? As more researchers document the potential harms of social media use, especially for youngsters, both Republicans and Democrats are pushing legislation to rein in platforms By Jesse Greenspan

Biotech Brain-Spine Interface Allows Paralyzed Man to Walk Using His Thoughts A device provides a connection between the brain and spinal cord, allowing thought to control movement By Dyani Lewis,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence Here's Why AI May Be Extremely Dangerous--Whether It's Conscious or Not Artificial intelligence algorithms will soon reach a point of rapid self-improvement that threatens our ability to control them and poses great potential risk to humanity By Tamlyn Hunt

Computing People, Not Google's Algorithm, Create Their Own Partisan 'Bubbles' Online Politically polarized Google users are not steered to partisan sites by the search engine’s algorithm but generally decide to go there on their own By Joanna Thompson

Artificial Intelligence A Computer Scientist Breaks Down Generative AI's Hefty Carbon Footprint Is generative AI bad for the environment? A computer scientist explains the carbon footprint of ChatGPT and its cousins—and how to reduce it By Kate Saenko,The Conversation US

Robotics Soft 'Electronic Skin' Mimics Our Sense of Touch A flexible, conductive membrane that can pass sensory information to the brain and muscles is a step towards artificial skin By Katharine Sanderson,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence Why We Need to See Inside AI's Black Box A computer scientist explains what it means when the inner workings of AIs are hidden By Saurabh Bagchi,The Conversation US

Biotech Bionic Finger 'Sees' Inside Objects by Poking Them A robotic finger’s supersensitive touches could probe inside body parts and circuits By Simon Makin

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 328, Issue 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The complaints, which were reported across the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. During this period, Handelsblatt says Tesla customers reported over 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems, including 139 reports of 'unintentional emergency braking' and 383 reports of 'phantom stops' from false collision warnings." Emma Roth, The Verge

FROM THE ARCHIVE The Mathematical Surprises of Triangles, Squares and Pentagons On his 101st birthday, Martin Gardner's legacy continues to inspire new breakthroughs By Colm Mulcahy | October 2015

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