Adam C. Engst

@adamengst
1.2K Followers
155 Following
287 Posts
I publish @TidBITS and the TidBITS Content Network, serve as president of the Finger Lakes Runners Club, and direct and time numerous races in the Ithaca area.
TidBITShttps://tidbits.com
TCNhttps://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros
FLRChttps://fingerlakesrunners.org
Wow. Siri 0, ChatGPT 1, humbly.
Debating between a favorite picture of the woods where I grew up and another Electric Sheep still for the iPhone 16 Pro Smartish case. I hope they've done the Camera Control cutout well.
@nickheer Imagine my surprise when flipping to the back page of one of the New Yorkers that my mother loves to give me. Since I get them in essentially random order, I haven't yet seen if you won or not.
It's hard not to feel singled out when there's no other rain anywhere in the entire state. (And when we still don't have power from yesterday's severe storms.)
@vnglst Pong Wars is very cool, but it would benefit from a randomizer at the start so it doesn't always end up at this stuck point 32 minutes in.
Appreciate Your Editor Day
I'm dying to know the story behind how this Pennsylvania family business that makes potato, onion, and cabbage bags can come up with text like this.
Best spam of the day!
Thank you, Slackbot!
The FLRC Challenge, one of my big non-TidBITS activities, just got a nice write-up in a local alt-weekly. The reporter is an intern from the Cornell Daily Sun, and he did a great job. (Then someone else at the paper butchered the physical paper's cover, using an irrelevant photo, getting the club's name wrong, and introducing a typo in headline. Sigh.) There's so much great tech underlying the Challenge! https://www.ithaca.com/news/tompkins_county/a-challenge-for-runners/article_644efc22-318a-11ee-83fc-77e24f4bf7d1.html
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Wow. Siri 0, ChatGPT 1, humbly.
@adamengst WolframAlpha says 18 weeks and 2.21 days, which I think is more correct. I think Siri used to outsource this type of question to it and so worked better.

@mjtsai @adamengst From April 25th to September 1st is 129 days (18 weeks, 3 days):

- April 25th -> April 26th: 1 day

- -> April 30th: 5 days
- -> Mai 1st: 6 days
- -> Jun 1st: 37 days
- -> Jul 1st: 67 days
- -> Aug 1st: 98 days
- -> Sep 1st: 129 days

Taking the time of day into account (between “now” and Sep. 1st), it is a few hours less.

The question was: “How many *weeks* are …”, so I consider 18 the correct answer.

Let’s nitpick: “How many days are between now and tomorrow?”

Two
0%
One
0%
x hours
0%
None
100%
Poll ended at .
@teilweise @adamengst 18 weeks is correct, but it loses points for extra precision if the extra is wrong. Adam posted at 6:24 PM, i.e. more than 3/4 of the way through the day, so it’s closer to 2 than 3.

@mjtsai @adamengst I’d be happy with “18 weeks, 3 days.”. “18 weeks, 2 days, and a few hours” (as WA did) might be overly specific when asking for weeks but is a very good answer considering “now”/“exactly”.

“18 weeks, 4 days” is wrong. Not totally off but wrong.†

“4 weeks” is fire-anyone-involved-that-did-not-speak-up-to-stop-this-from-getting-released-wrong.

† I no longer have any sympathy for AI.
“But when they are right, they are totally useful!”
So is a broken clock. TWICE a day!
(Sorry)

@mjtsai @teilweise I wonder what ChatGPT model Siri talks to. When I asked ChatGPT directly using 4o, it was happy to geek out on precision and came up with better answers. But as you both note, the precision is unnecessary since I only asked about weeks. https://chatgpt.com/share/680f98b9-fd18-8009-8611-04f3fd57dfa3
ChatGPT - Weeks Between Dates

Shared via ChatGPT

ChatGPT

@adamengst @mjtsai That hurts to read.

“4 months (April 25 to August 25) is roughly 4 × 30.44 = 121.76 days”
(April 25th - August 25th is 122 days - for about the last 2070 years, when the Julian Calendar was introduced.)

“August 1–25 = 25 days”
not wrong but WHY?

“129 days ÷ 7 = 18.428 weeks”
Rounding? No?

“Let’s just call that 128.966 days.”
Rounding? Yes.

1/2

@adamengst @mjtsai

“If you posted at 6:24 PM on April 25, the span to September 1 at 6:24 PM is about 18 weeks, 2 days, and 18 hours.”
Nope.

“From April 25 at 6:24 PM until September 1 at 11:59 PM is 18 weeks, 2 days, and 23 hours”
Nope.

2/2

@adamengst Siri without AI (iPhone 12 mini here) makes the same error, whether you use days or weeks. “Today” seems to be the problem. If I state the specific dates, it gets it right. Time to file feedback, I suppose.
@AnthonyReimer My Siri (with Apple Intelligence) gets it wrong even if I specify April 25th to September 1st. The 4 weeks and 2 days seems to hit on May 25, so maybe that's related somehow?