Transport directions from ChatGPT

[dosxuk]

Because it's designed to create human sounding blocks of text, not be factual. It has no connection to any sort of real time data, everything it "knows" is just the result of what was in the original data sets from a few years ago, mostly from free rather than authoritative sources; and then mashed together with its highest priority being "does this sound like what a person would write".

 

[Purple Train]

To travel from Horden to Woolwich using public transport, you can follow these directions:

1. Start by walking to the nearest bus stop in Horden.
2. Take the Go North East bus service 22 towards Peterlee Bus Station.
3. Get off at Peterlee Bus Station.
4. From Peterlee Bus Station, take the Go North East bus service X7 towards Sunderland Interchange.
5. Get off at Sunderland Interchange.
6. From Sunderland Interchange, take the Tyne and Wear Metro service towards South Shields.
7. Get off at South Shields Metro Station.
8. From South Shields Metro Station, take the Shields Ferry to North Shields Ferry Terminal.
9. From North Shields Ferry Terminal, walk to North Shields Metro Station.
10. Take the Tyne and Wear Metro service towards Airport.
11. Get off at Newcastle upon Tyne Central Station.
12. From Newcastle upon Tyne Central Station, take a train towards London Kings Cross. The train journey takes approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes.
13. Get off at London Kings Cross Station.
14. From London Kings Cross Station, take the London Underground Jubilee Line towards Stratford.
15. Get off at North Greenwich Station.
16. From North Greenwich Station, take the London Underground Jubilee Line towards Woolwich Arsenal.
17. Get off at Woolwich Arsenal Station.

You can follow these directions, but you shouldn't! It's not so much skipping steps this time as effectively going via Siberia and Mars.

 

[Purple Train]

Because it's designed to create human sounding blocks of text, not be factual. It has no connection to any sort of real time data, everything it "knows" is just the result of what was in the original data sets from a few years ago, mostly from free rather than authoritative sources; and then mashed together with its highest priority being "does this sound like what a person would write".

I still don't quite see where the skipped steps come from.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jul 2023 ==

Marginally better...

To travel from Matlock to Southwold using public transport, you can follow these directions:

1. Start by walking to Matlock Bus Station.
2. Take the Hulleys of Baslow 172 bus towards Bakewell. Get off at Bakewell Square.
3. From Bakewell Square, take the TM Travel 218 bus towards Sheffield Interchange. Get off at Sheffield Interchange.
4. At Sheffield Interchange, take the train towards Norwich. The train journey takes approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes.
5. Get off at Norwich Station.
6. From Norwich Station, take the Greater Anglia train towards Lowestoft. Get off at Beccles Station.
7. At Beccles Station, transfer to the bus service 99 towards Southwold. Get off at Southwold Market Place.

Please note that bus and train schedules may vary depending on the day and time of travel, so it is recommended to check the latest schedules in advance. Additionally, the travel time can vary based on connections and transportation frequencies.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

None of the examples given by ChatGPT seem any less daft than some of the bizarre results I've had from the WYPTE online journey planner which frequently suggests taking a bus one or two stops then walking 20 minutes to catch a different one that would have connected with the first if I'd stayed on.

EDIT: That said, the Metro journey planner has at least never suggested or implied that the bass player from Ned's Atomic Dustbin helped to keep the South Fylde branch line open, so I guess it's all swings and roundabouts!

 

[dosxuk]

I still don't quite see where the skipped steps come from.

You're not understanding what ChatGPT is doing.

It's not looking up how to get from A to B and then trying to present that information how a human would; it's generating words based on what it thinks is the most likely thing to follow on from what you and it has already said. It has no idea you're asking it for directions, it's just trying to create human like sentences.

ChatGPT is not a research tool, encyclopaedia or source of factual knowledge - it's a human-like language generation tool.

 

[BJames]

When I was trying to gain a better understanding of ChatGPT to feed into university discussions around the use of AI at university, one of the first things I did was ask it simply 'how to get from Enfield Town to Enfield Chase station' - it advised that 'you can take the Great Northern Line, which is a train service operated by TfL Rail. Trains run frequently and the journey time is approximately 6 minutes.' That would be interesting...

 

[Ediswan]

When I was trying to gain a better understanding of ChatGPT to feed into university discussions around the use of AI at university, one of the first things I did was ask it simply 'how to get from Enfield Town to Enfield Chase station' - it advised that 'you can take the Great Northern Line, which is a train service operated by TfL Rail. Trains run frequently and the journey time is approximately 6 minutes.' That would be interesting...

The journey time is about right, by bus.

 

[Purple Train]

The journey time is about right, by bus.

It's taken me 20 minutes!