Can GPT-o1 Solve THIS North Pole Riddle?

[@Sedjwin_]

Its vague where the starting point is. I belived it was after turning 90 degrees as we already knew the distance before that. I think GPT swapped between these possibilities in its answer, because of this.

[@stevengrundy4296]

There's lots of things wrong with this problem. Turning 90Deg east after travelling 1km south from the north pole will not mean you will then walk in a circle to reach the point you turned at. This will only happen after travelling a quarter way around the earth. IE the equator. Also even if you did decide to circle your way back to where you made the 90Deg turn that circle wouldn't have a radius of 1km due to the curvature you travelled over during your 1km walk to the turning point. The circle will actually be slightly less than 1km

[@CoffeeAndSomethingElse]

Not wrong, It just took it for granted that the North Pole can't be reached and therefore assumed the starting point you meant must be the point where you started walking left.

[@Kitesnor]

By telling o1 that "how far do you need to walk to across starting point" this is riddle within a riddle, try asking it to reflect on the answer and see if it understands the logical mistake it made. However I would rather like to see it framed differently, "would it ever cross its starting point given the set conditions x, y and z". Also if you stand on the exact northpole any direction you take can only be southern direction.

[@steve_jabz]

ChatGPT was right. You specifically stated the initial direction had to be straight, then specifically said it had to cross the starting point, but didn't specify whether the next one had to be straight or not, so it rotated back to the starting point in a circle. You tried to create a trick question, but ended up getting tricked. In other tests, we grill the model for not taking the option that's technically not specified by the question that's a much easier secret answer, now when it does that, we say it's wrong for not following the style of the question? It actually makes more sense than #4. Walking left in a continuous direction on earth wouldn't land you back in the same spot, since we don't live in a game engine on a perfectly round sphere. You'd likely be walking many times around the globe before you reach it, but it depends what the purpose of the question is, since it's a vague, poorly formulated question that's up to interpretation. If you assume this is an actual problem someone has and not some gimmicky trick quiz, which an llm should, they're probably not going to walk around the planet ad infinitum to get somewhere that's 10 mins away, so it's better to look for a more rational solution, and it found one.

[@goomyman23]

This is where I think LLMs have an opportunity to improve - LLMs never ask clarifying questions. If you ask it something vague it just tries to answer it. But real life questions often require follow up clarifications

[@NigeTheDove]

If that was on, say, a Maths exam for GCSE (16 yr old) I'd agree with the answer the model gave. If you're looking for pedantic nuances perhaps you should tell the model. It even stated its interpretation of your question. Impressive.

[@MetaphoricMinds]

You all are still misunderstanding. Even if you walk 1 step or 1 mile, turning left and walking strait doesn't leave you on that line of latitude. If you took 1 step, you wouldn't just circle the north pole.

[@NigeTheDove]

I stand corrected! Unless you stuck to LL lines meaning you'd feel like going around in a circle. What if you have several people all walking different distances from the pole and they have to stay equidistant after turning left. What if you unravel the earth like it was curved spacetime. Are we dealing with theory Vs reality here? It is impressive that the LLM intermated that it had to make some assumptions about the meaning of the question. If it gave that answer but explained why, then gave the 'no' answer and why that would be the case in actual reality - that would be an impressive chat bot. How did this all happen so quickly?!

[@MetaphoricMinds]

Here is why you're wrong. Walk 1 step south. Turn 90 degrees. Walk forward. You will NOT start "circling" the North Pole. That would only work if you walked to the equator.

[@spyders03]

Or travelled along latitude lines, but yeah, walking in a straight line will never get you back to start until you circle the earth

[@MetaphoricMinds]

@@spyders03 It eventually would get you back to your starting point if you walked long enough. You would circle the earth multiple times.

[@vladimiru8602]

This riddle tricked me as well, I thought that ChatGPT was actually right, it just understood the turning point as start, that is a possible interpretation. Only after reading the comments I understood, that I was tricked and answered wrong as well, so I can’t judge ChatGPT for not solving this riddle.

[@spyders03]

Your riddle doesn't make sense. If you travel in a straight line, you will travel around the circumference of the earth, not follow latitude lines (which would be a constant turning motion). It doesn't matter if you are at the north pole or not, walking in a straight line will end up travelling around the earth (hypothetically, obviously you can't "walk" around the earth)

[@ipred2]

Came here to say that.

[@gpsx]

@spyders03 I think that is the right answer, walking around the earth, at least at one level. This is indeed much longer than 2 pi KM, which is a valid choice. There are other ways to answer though, according to this reasoning. The earth isn't a sphere. Its covered with hills. So you wouldn't really walk a great circle, assuming you could walk it. You take a funny path that would take much longer, if it ever even returned to the starting point. Another answer is that people don't actually walk in straight lines. If you try to walk in a straight line without some exernal reference, you will end up walking in a circle. I don't know how big this would be, but it could be smaller than 2 pi km if you are somewhere with not visual landmarks to navigate by (say north pole in the fog).

[@MichaelEHastings]

Earth is flat for someone as smart as you with AI, you should know that we dont live on a spinning space rock lol.

[@demongo2007]

Is that a deliberately different formulation of the “North Pole riddle” intended to confuse GPT-o1? Cuz the “typical” riddle statement has a final step of “head north for 1 km” then asking either how far you are from the original starting point, or stating that you’ve arrived at your starting point then asking where on earth you are. Of course, in the riddle as stated, you’d always be 1 km away from your origin point regardless of how far you walk, as you’d be walking along a latitude line 1 km from the pole…

[@TimothyWhiteheadzm]

Actually the riddle is not 100 percent clear whether or not you follow a straight line after turning 90 degrees but I think it would be implied as no other suggestions are made. Therefore you are incorrect as the walker follows a great circle (initially away from the north pole and passing 1km north of the south pole at it antipode) and not a line of latitude. This is all assuming the earth is a sphere. Given that it is really an oblate spheroid with imperfections the meaning of a 'straight line' can get quite complex.

[@MetaphoricMinds]

You would not walk in a circle around the north pole unless you walked to the equator before making a turn.