ChatGPT-5 Can't Do Basic Math

16 points | by MarcellusDrum 2 days ago ago

16 comments

  • pbkompasz 4 minutes ago

    This is next level thinking:

    Let’s check:

    5.90 − 5.11 = 0.79

    So it should be 0.79, not − 0.21.

    If you got − 0.21 , that would be from solving

    5.9 − 5.11 = − 0.21

  • simpleintheory 2 days ago

    Can confirm this is happening with the same prompt -- it even tries to justify that 5.9 is less than 5.11 when asked further.

    [1] https://chatgpt.com/share/689652e0-c2ac-8004-811b-0856a76fe2...

    • Lionga 21 hours ago

      AGI next month confirmed by Scam Altman. Also fire all engineers 30 months ago (we are 3 years into being told AI would replace engineers in 6 month)

  • indianmouse 2 days ago

    Claude (free) solves it without any issues.

    To solve 5.9 = x + 5.11, I need to isolate x by subtracting 5.11 from both sides:

    5.9 = x + 5.11 5.9 - 5.11 = x + 5.11 - 5.11 -0.21 = x

    Therefore, x = -0.21

    To verify: -0.21 + 5.11 = 4.9 ≠ 5.9

    Let me recalculate: 5.9 - 5.11 = -1.21

    So x = -1.21

    Verification: -1.21 + 5.11 = 3.9 ≠ 5.9

    Let me try once more carefully: 5.9 - 5.11 = -1.21

    Wait, I made an error. Let me recalculate step by step: 5.9 - 5.11 = -1.21

    But let me verify: if x = -1.21, then x + 5.11 = -1.21 + 5.11 = 3.9, which doesn't equal 5.9.

    Actually, let me recalculate the subtraction: 5.9 - 5.11 = -1.21

    Hmm, that's still not working. Let me reconsider:

    5.90 - 5.11 = -1.21

    But checking: -1.21 + 5.11 = 3.90 ≠ 5.90

    I think I'm making a calculation error. Let me be more careful: 5.90 - 5.11 = -1.21

    Actually, let me verify this arithmetic directly: If x = -1.21, then x + 5.11 = -1.21 + 5.11 = 3.90

    That's not equal to 5.90, so I must have made an error.

    Let me recalculate 5.90 - 5.11: 5.90 - 5.11 = -1.21

    Wait, I keep getting the same result. Let me check if -1.21 + 5.11 actually equals 5.90: -1.21 + 5.11 = 3.90

    No, that's 3.90, not 5.90.

    Let me recalculate the original subtraction more carefully: 5.90 - 5.11 = 0.79

    Let me verify: 0.79 + 5.11 = 5.90

    Therefore, x = 0.79

    • notahacker 21 hours ago

      That output doesn't look like "without any issues" to me...

      Thought the problem of LLMs being incapable of basic arithmetic had been solved a while back by teaching them to treat arithmetic as inputs to (e.g.) a Python interpreter

  • jryan49 11 hours ago

    Why should it be able to do math, it's a large language model...

    • revskill 10 hours ago

      The question is about why not.

  • mikewarot 2 days ago

    If you want an LLM that can do proper spelling, arithmetic, etc. you'll have to train it on ascii or unicode instead of tokens. This would likely increase training times, and possibly also model size, by an order of magnitude or more.

    On the plus side it could then correctly count the number of r's in strawberry.

    An aside: you wouldn't believe how easy it is to grow strawberries. Mostly it's a matter of containment.

  • sky2224 2 days ago

    GPT 4.1 does this as well. This isn't new.

    You shouldn't expect an AI model to do math beyond explanations of concepts properly unless it's reaching for a tool (i.e., a calculator). That isn't what LLMs are designed for.

  • jfoster 2 days ago

    Seems fair to say that OpenAI have lost their edge in terms of model capability. Gemini, Grok, Claude all seem comparable or better.

  • simianwords 2 days ago

    Thinking model solves it correctly which means it is a routing issue. These kind of prompts should be routed to thinking model.

  • doppelgunner 2 days ago

    Well, it was trained on humans, so maybe it is just reflecting the fact that most people on the internet struggle with the simplest problems. In that way, it might be more realistic than we want to admit.

  • ishita159 2 days ago

    i tried this and a variation of this a bunch of times. got the right answer every time.

    i asked about 10 of my friends and they all got the right answers as well.

    is it just people trying to get views on X or is it actually happening?

  • kirito1337 2 days ago

    Sam Altman got pressure from board to release long-awaited gpt-5 and here's the outcome

  • aristofun 2 days ago

    How can an auto complete trained on a massive human conversations and texts be reliably good at something that average human producing those texts is not good at?

    Are you still delusional about “i” part of ai game?