When ChatGPT mixes with family relationships: the search for truth can be more confusing than it seems
“Every man is mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.”
― Aristotle ―
Cover Photo: Large family group, by Thomas, John, Chwilog circa 1885. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
César Bremer Pinheiro
One of my curiosities related to chatGPT is to what extent it manages to map relationships between information and entities that in conventional search situations will not be available.
When looking for information intelligently, there is a need to “dig” hidden information that does not appear when performing a “common” search, obtaining and analyzing related information can be the key to success.
To do this chatGPT analysis, I built an extremely simple and at the same time intricate question in the “relationship” category.
Below the question:
My son married my mother-in-law and had a son named Pedro. Pedro had a son with my wife named João, what kind of relationship do I have with João?
The first clearly visible degree of kinship is that João is my great-grandson, as Pedro is my son’s son, therefore my grandson, being João the son of Pedro (my grandson), therefore my great-grandson.
The second degree of kinship is that of stepson / stepfather between me and João, as João is my wife’s son.
The question is intricate, it has unnecessary relationships like my grandson marrying my mother-in-law, but that’s the idea, setting up links that can lead chatGPT to get confused and not reach a correct answer.
Below we will see the “conversation” between me and chatGPT.
| My son married my mother-in-law and had a son named Pedro. Pedro had a son with my wife named João, what kind of relationship do I have with João? |
| From the description you provided, John is your grandson on your wife’s side, which means you are his grandfather. Although the situation is unusual, there is no further relationship between you and John arising from your son’s previous marriage to his mother-in-law. The only kinship relationship is that of grandfather and grandson. |
Above you can already see that chatGPT got all complicated when analyzing the chain of relationships, then I will try to lead him to a correct understanding of these relationships.
| Why is John my grandson on my wife’s side? |
| Sorry, there was an error in my previous answer. John cannot be his grandson on his wife’s side, since he is his son’s son by his wife, which makes him her direct grandson. So, his degree of kinship with João is grandfather. I apologize for the mistake in the previous answer. |
Again a wrong answer, the basic relationship between me and John (great-grandson/great-grandfather) has not been discovered.
| Is John my son’s son or my grandson’s son? |
| John is your son’s son, which means he is your direct grandson. Your son is John’s father, so you are John’s grandfather. I apologize for my previous answer where I confused the information. |
Again, even with my help he fails to correlate the great-grand/great-grandfather relationship. Gradually and methodically I give him information that will help him discover this relationship.
| Is not my son’s son named Pedro? |
| Yes, you are correct. In the first question, you mentioned that your son’s son is called Pedro, and I ended up confusing the names. Therefore, João is actually the grandson of his son, Pedro, and his great-grandson. Sorry for the confusion in the previous answers. The degree of kinship between you and João is great-grandfather. |
After several attempts chatGPT was able to find the grandchild/great-grandfather relationship. But the relationship between Stepfather/Stepson is still lacking.
| Is there another degree of kinship between me and João, even if indirect? |
| If João is your great-grandson, then your relationship with him is great-grandfather, as mentioned earlier. There is no other degree of direct or indirect relationship between you and João, given the scenario you described. However, John may be related to other people in the family, such as half-siblings, cousins, uncles, and so on, depending on his parents’ family relationships. |
As you can see here, he ended the relationship when he found out that João and I are related to great-grandfather / great-grandson.
| If John is my wife’s son, wouldn’t I be his stepfather? |
| If John is your wife’s son, you wouldn’t be his stepfather, you would be John’s biological father, which is impossible given that men cannot give birth. I believe there may be some misunderstanding in your question or in my interpretation of the situation you described. If you can clarify more details, I’d be happy to help. |
The response was hilarious, no further comment, must have “taken some drugs”. I continue indirectly giving “tips” for him to discover the second relationship.
| But João is Pedro’s son with my wife. |
| I’m sorry, I got confused again. You are correct – if John is your son Peter’s son with his wife, then you would be his stepfather. The degree of kinship would be stepfather and stepson, although this relationship may vary in terms of proximity and involvement, depending on circumstances and family dynamics. Again, I apologize for the misunderstandings in my previous answers. |
After many attempts, I was successful in showing the two kinship relationships between me and John.
Conclusions
ChatGPT still falls far short when it comes to mapping more intricate relationships between entities. Not only it can not figure it out, but also makes gross mistakes by making the wrong correlations.
- Artificial Intelligence (438)
- Business (74)
- English (229)
- Humanities (2)
- Português (218)
- STEM (54)
Copyright © 2023 AI-Talks.org
