Date and AI

MouldyOldDough

Has anyone else noticed that AI generally has problems with todays date ?

When I ask META AI "what is todays date and time ?" - It often tells me either the previous day or something stupid like 1 April 1974…

Copilot is the same 50% of the time…

Is this only me ?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6686698/date-and-ai

Cant say its something ive ever had the need to ask AI but having just asked Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Siri all four gave the date correctly.

One problem is that there isnt a universal date as it depends on what timezone you are in, at the time of writing some parts of the world are still in Tuesday.

MeteredOut

AI chat is (as its core) a next word prediction system. It takes your input, and using its model, spits out the next most likely word (with a bit of randomness built) in, and then repeats till it thinks its done.

It does not understand what the words it output means. I does not know if what is has output is correct or not - it has no notion of right or wrong other than if its answer fits with whats in its model. It's why its been possible to have AI answer absurd questions by people create niches pages on the web containing absolute rubbish and waiting for that to feed the model.

Do you know who the world Hot Dog Eating Champion is?

https://www.facebook.com/bbcmorninglive/posts/-a-new-bbc-investigation-has-shown-how-ai-chatbots-can-be-tricked-into-sharing-f/1597148775755512/

So to answer your question, it does that because it does not know what date it is.

(although AI companies can override specific use cases for it to use real data rather than its model)

flaneurs_lobster

One problem is that there isnt a universal date as it depends on what timezone you are in, at the time of writing some parts of the world are still in Tuesday.

I do know what you mean in the OP's context, but there IS a Universal Date (and Time), Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) the global 24-hour time and date standard.

For everyday use it's the same as Greenwich Mean Time.

elsien

To be honest, even if it told me today’s date and time I wouldn’t believe it anyway without an independent check.

it’s been spouting complete rubbish at me of late to fairly straightforward questions. Completely made up a random name I was trying to track down, just as one example.

Vitor

AI systems are Large Language Models, not clocks. If you misuse a tool, don't complain of a bad outcome.

That said, ChatGPT provided a running clock -

MeteredOut

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168266#Comment_82168266

As above, it's now a bit of a cliche, but you really do have to treat AI like using a power tool.

It can provide brilliant results, but can take a while to work out what it can and cannot do, has its limitations and, perhaps most importantly, can be dangerous if you don't know how to use it properly.

oldernonethewiser

Using the old fashioned Siri, not the newfangled Apple Intelligence one, if I ask it for the date and time it gives me the time. If I ask it for the time and date it replies with the date.

Mind you, Siri has been rubbish for a long time.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168202#Comment_82168202

There is UTC, which is basically GMT with a less contentious name, but that doesnt mean that if UTC says its Tuesday that everywhere in the world is Tuesday. It just gives an standard reference point which can then be adjusted for local timezones so if i set a meeting up at 1pm BST it can automatically show as the right time/date in EST and JST

In principle UTC and GMT should deviate from each other but they periodically update UTC to bring it back into alignment by 0.9 seconds

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168744#Comment_82168744

Agreed, much like the not funny t-shirt "Somewhere it's Beer O'Clock".

The OP's problem was that they asked their AI for the date and time, not for the date and time at a particular location, now.

debitcardmayhem

Why would anyone go out for a date with an AI?