Apparently, people are writing college papers with AI. Me, I just wanted to solve a puzzle. So let's take a moment to compare two AI responses to a very simple question: "What's a 5-letter salad green in the mustard family?" Some of you may immediately recognize this, if you are a bit obsessed with doing those darn LinkedIn puzzles like I am, but as an avid avoider-of-vegetables, I simply couldn't come up with anything, and google searches were terribly unhelpful. So I decided to give AI a chance. I mean, the question seems straightforward, right? Lettuce not overthink it. (I'd say sorry, but I'm definitely not sorry).
First up: Gemini, coming in with the confidence of a seasoned politician. It boldly declares that the answer is KALE, which would be great if "kale" had five letters. (It doesn't. It has four. This isn't a debate.) And Gemini proceeds to double-down on this answer with all-caps intensity and even additional context, like it's filibustering its own logic. Bold. Wrong. Boldly wrong. Maybe AI isn't suited for everything, but it has already entered the playing field with the vigor and general accuracy of an election campaign, so I guess there's that. Meanwhile, there's ChatGPT, which takes us on a bizarre little head-space journey. It states “A 5-letter green in the mustard family is arugula!" which at first glance looks just as bad if not worse than Gemini, except in a plot twist, immediately corrects itself like a magician revealing the trick halfway through the act. "Oh ho ho! Just kidding. The correct 5-letter answer is cress." or, "I meant to be wrong. See? It's part of my charm!" (But y'all, what even is cress, honestly...) So, am I being gaslit by AI? Because suddenly I was second-guessing how many letters were really in kale! I sat there like a 5 year old, counting on my fingers, though I think I looked more like a raccoon doing math in a garbage can. K-A-L-E ... four. Still four. Has always been four. Meanwhile, Gemini is confidently bursting through the curtains shouting "FIVE!", and ChatGPT is stage-whispering "...wait, no, it's cress. CRESS. You didn't see that first part." These aren't the droids I was looking for.
Wait, wasn't there a Star Trek episode about this? I'm pretty sure there are still only four lights. I feel Picard's plight all of a sudden. I know how he suffers. I mean, aside from being stripped and tortured in a Cardassian cell just for him... but, the other thing. With the lights. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm solving a crossword or being pranked by Skynet's unpaid interns. Meanwhile, I just wanted to solve a puzzle, but ended up questioning salad, the universe, and everything. I can't imagine trying to base my education on this. Maybe don't do that either way, though.













