Mastodawn

The Homework Machine
by Shel Silverstein

The Homework Machine,
Oh, the Homework Machine,
Most perfect
contraption that's ever been seen.
Just put in your homework, then drop in a dime,
Snap on the switch, and in ten seconds' time,
Your homework comes out, quick and clean as can be.
Here it is— 'nine plus four?' and the answer is 'three.'
Three?
Oh me . . .
I guess it's not as perfect
As I thought it would be.

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Nivex 🐧 📻Mar 20

This poem was published in the 1981 book "A Light In The Attic". It is accompanied by an illustration therein.

ref https://www.insightfultroll.com/blog/2025/12/30/homework-machine/

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist Mar 20

@nivex

[Illustration of a homework machine accompanied by a poem]

#AI version 1.0. Still problems with the accuracy in the current #chatGPT and #agenticAI versions.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist Mar 21

@nivex I apologize for being unclear. I am not referring to the image or AltText, which I appreciate. I'm being a bit sarcastic in my reply, differently yet congruent to the poem, associating the homework machine with AI. The linked post (which I've now read) points out the poet "seems" to have predicted the failing of AI (the current version) to be also unable do homework accurately, indeed it catches the irony of a student's disappointment in using such a machine to accomplish a task rather than learning to do it themself.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

@nivex Yep, there's that, too. The biggest AI failing being you need to be an expert to catch nuanced errors that go beyond simple fact checking. I didn't point out the need to curate answers as I felt that would add an additional layer beyond my assertion of AI being similarly inaccurate. I hate to admit very rarely to using AI as a search tool to at least chunk down complex questions to a list of sources as a starting point. When I was at school in the 80s, I used the librarian and libraries as my homework machine!