Technologies

Computing Pioneer Criticizes ChatGPT AI Tech for Making Things Up

Vint Cerf, who helped create the internet’s core network technology, hopes engineers can fix the flaws of artificial intelligence language processing.

Vint Cerf, a founding father of the internet, has some harsh words for the suddenly hot technology behind the ChatGPT AI chatbot: «Snake oil.»

Google’s internet evangelist wasn’t completely down on the artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT and Google’s own competing Bard, called a large language model. But, speaking Monday at Celesta Capital’s TechSurge Summit, he did warn about ethical issues of a technology that can generate plausible sounding but incorrect information even when trained on a foundation of factual material.

If an executive tried to get him to apply ChatGPT to some business problem, his response would be to call it snake oil, referring to bogus medicines that quacks sold in the 1800s, he said. Another ChatGPT metaphor involved kitchen appliances.

«It’s like a salad shooter — you know how the lettuce goes all over everywhere,» Cerf said. «The facts are all over everywhere, and it mixes them together because it doesn’t know any better.»

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and competitors like Google’s Bard hold the potential to significantly transform our online lives by answering questions, drafting emails, summarizing presentations and performing many other tasks. Microsoft has begun building OpenAI’s language technology into its Bing search engine in a significant challenge to Google, but it uses its own index of the web to try to «ground» OpenAI’s flights of fancy with authoritative, trustworthy documents.

Cerf’s concern arrived just as people putting Bing through its paces discovered factual errors that didn’t match source documents and bizarre chat behavior during extended conversations. Microsoft pledged to improve performance.

In 2004, Cerf shared the Turing Award, the top prize in computing, for helping to develop the internet foundation called TCP/IP, which shuttles data from one computer to another by breaking it into small, individually addressed packets that can take different routes from source to destination. He’s not an AI researcher, but he’s a computing engineer who’d like to see his colleagues improve AI’s shortcomings.

Cerf said he was surprised to learn that ChatGPT could fabricate bogus information from a factual foundation. «I asked it, ‘Write me a biography of Vint Cerf.’ It got a bunch of things wrong,» Cerf said. That’s when he learned the technology’s inner workings — that it uses statistical patterns spotted from huge amounts of training data to construct its response.

«It knows how to string a sentence together that’s grammatically likely to be correct,» but it has no true knowledge of what it’s saying, Cerf said. «We are a long way away from the self-awareness we want.»

OpenAI, which earlier in February launched a $20 per month plan to use ChatGPT, has been clear about about the technology’s shortcomings but aims to improve it through «continuous iteration.»

«ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Fixing this issue is challenging,» the AI research lab said when it launched ChatGPT in November.

Cerf hopes for progress, too. «Engineers like me should be responsible for trying to find a way to tame some of these technologies so they are less likely to cause trouble,» he said.

Cerf’s comments stood in contrast to those of another Turing award winner at the conference, chip design pioneer and former Stanford President John Hennessy, who offered a more optimistic assessment of AI.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personalfinance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. Formore, see this post.

Technologies

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge Is Down to Just $730 Today and It’s a Low-Profile Powerhouse

The Galaxy S25 Edge is down from $1,220 — a 40% savings on Samsung’s sleekest, slimmest phone yet.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge is built for people who want it all — a powerful camera, a sleek design and AI features that actually make life easier. From finding your favorite photo with a voice command to capturing stunning night video, this phone blends performance and personality in a titanium frame that’s as tough as it is beautiful.

Amazon has dropped the price of the Galaxy S25 Edge to just $730 — a 40% discount off its $1,220 list price. This is an excellent deal, but it could end at any time, so we suggest making your order sooner rather than later.

The Galaxy S25 Edge is fast. It has a 6.7-inch QHD Plus ProScaler display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, powered by a Snapdragon processor and paired with 12GB of RAM. It has 512GB of storage, which gives you plenty of room for high-res photos and 4K video, especially with its 200-megapixel rear camera and AI-enhanced selfie system.

Samsung’s Night Video mode helps you capture crisp footage in low light, while AI tools clean up background noise and even help you find specific photos by description. The virtual assistant can handle multistep tasks like searching for a restaurant and texting a friend — all in one ask.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

The titanium body is ultra-slim yet durable, with Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 for added toughness. And with Android 15 and One UI 7, you’ll get the latest software features and customization options.

For more Android savings, check out our best Galaxy S25 deals and top phone discounts.

MOBILE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Samsung Galaxy A36 5G 128GB Unlocked Phone (Awesome Black):

$350 (save $50)
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE 128GB Unlocked AI Phone (Gray):

$525 (save $125)
Moto G Stylus 5G 256GB Unlocked Phone(2024 Model, Caramel Latte):

$300 (save $100)
Apple iPhone 14 128GB Unlocked Phone (Refurbished, Midnight):

$334 (save $295)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

This is one of the best prices we’ve seen on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, and it’s packed with premium features like a 200MP camera, AI-powered search and editing and a titanium build. If you’ve been waiting for a flagship phone that’s smart, stylish and seriously discounted, this is one of the most tempting Android deals this season.

Join Our Daily Deals Text Group!

Get hand-picked deals from CNET shopping experts straight to your phone.

By signing up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to receive recurring marketing messages at the phone number provided. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Msg & data rates may apply. View our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Technologies

Nothing’s Signature Transparent Design Is Coming to a New Budget Phone This Week

Do you love the design of Nothing’s phones, but dislike the price? The Nothing 3A Lite might be the perfect device for you.

British tech company Nothing is best known for its retro-inspired transparent technology design, but it’s never been the most affordable option on the market. That looks set to change this week, with the company set to unveil the Nothing 3A Lite on Wednesday.

Nothing says that this will be its first entry-level smartphone, and it will incorporate the transparent design elements seen across the company’s range of phones and headphones. We’ve been given our first glimpse of what looks like the back panel of the phone in a photo from Nothing, but we’ll have to wait until Wednesday at 1 p.m. GMT for the full reveal.

The addition of the 3A Lite to Nothing’s phone lineup follows on from the launch of the Nothing Phone 3 (the company’s «first, true flagship») this summer, and the mid-range 3A and 3A Pro back in the spring. For the first time, the company will offer smartphones that range from budget to high-end in price, meaning that there should be something for everyone.

The Nothing Phone 3A Lite is an «interesting prospect,» said CNET Editor at Large Andrew Lanxon, who reviewed the all three of the existing phones in the 3 series. «Nothing’s phones are already budget-focused, with the existing Phone 3A coming with a low to midrange price tag,» he said. «I’ll be keen to see just how much cheaper Nothing can make its phones, while still offering a pleasant everyday user experience.

«Crucially, they should still offer long software support periods to increase the shelf life — and thereby reduce the overall carbon footprint,» he added. «Value should not come at the expense of longevity»

Nothing currently offers six years of Android support with the Nothing Phone 3, which falls short of the seven years Google offers with its latest Pixel phones. The company alsorecently killed off its flashy Glyph interface — I personally think the replacement is better — and has increasingly been emphasizing its original use of AI as a selling point for its phones.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 27, #603

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 27, No. 603.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fun, but some of the answers are long and quite tough to unscramble.. So if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Witch way?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: What Harry Potter finds out he is.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CARD, DINT, RANT, MULE, MALE, HARM, MALT, TALE, TINT, CANT, ROAD

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

WAND, CHARM, AMULET, POTION, INCANTATION, CAULDRON.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is WIZARDRY. To find it, look for the W that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.