• The mustache question

    Posted on February 7, 2025 at 15:49 CST by • Comment in the Forums

    We’ve been having something of a debate around here regarding the use of AI. Susan, as you well know from her numerous posts and columns about it, warns about jumping into Microsoft’s Copilot service. I agree that caution is warranted, and one of the first things I reported here was the abusive threat Bing’s chat feature made to a reporter. I have a slightly different take, based on the premise that these AI services and features are here whether we like them or not, and whether we fear them or not.

    I conducted a very simple and brief experiment based on questioning two assistants. I asked Bing search, “Who was the last US president to have a mustache?” Bing did more or less what I expected — it gave me a list of results, with the first being a link to a Wikipedia article about facial hair on all presidents. I saw nothing on the first page with the answer. Further research would have been necessary.

    Then I asked Copilot. It’s response? “William Howard Taft.” It provided several citations in support. Of course, that’s the correct answer, and Copilot did the research for me. Annoyingly, Copilot’s response included a question to me: “Is there a particular reason you’re interested in presidential facial hair?” I was tempted to tell it “None of your business.”

    So, I ask you: Which assistant do you think did a better job?

    AI , ,
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