Grok3 - wow!

[sengsational]

"Da-aad, you sound like an AI!"

 

[Koolau]

"Da-aad, you sound like an AI!"

Or, more likely, son or daughter will grab their phone and answer you with their own AI response.

 

[ivinsfan]

I want an AI engine that can suggest what to say to DW when she’s upset with me to calm the angry spirits and get her to smile.

Another would be what to say to a teen family member without getting an eye roll or “whatever” in response. IMO those are challenges that have real life application potential and also value.

I'm guessing like most DHs you already know what to say, the issue is saying it,but reconfirming with AI might be helpful.

 

[Fermion]

I gave it a hard one. "Could the Romans have used Zero Point Energy to power a war cart"?

"Romans tapping zero-point energy for a cart is a hard no—technologically, conceptually impossible. They had iron and copper, but ZPE’s a quantum ghost, not a forgeable force. A horse-powered tank or torsion cart fits their era; ZPE belongs to 20th-century labs or sci-fi. Even if they “did,” the output wouldn’t roll a sandal, let alone a legionary chariot. Stick to sinew and stallions—Rome’s real power stayed grounded."

 

[omni550]

I've been playing with Grok3. It gives me a LOT of Google-esque verbiage.

My latest query is trying to resolve a recurring issue with Windows 11's automatic updates that kill my laptop's keyboard and touchpad. Updating the drivers does nothing, only reinstalling a repair version of 24H2 (which takes 3 hours) seems to fix the issue. Lately this is occurring almost daily. Hopefully Grok3 finds a workable solution.

omni

Let us know if it helps.

Scuba,

Grok3 never came up with a specific solution to my issue, unfortunately.

From my extensive reading, mine is not the only computer suffering with this issue when Windows updates itself.

From one of the citations included at the end of Grok3's response, I did learn how to change the automatic updates of Windows to manual updates (which gives me the control, at the possible expense of security, etc.) by going into services.msc and disabling the automatic updating. This is, at best, a stopgap measure.

omni

 

[dixonge]

I've not been particularly impressed so far w/ the AI chat clients, but two uses have become pretty handy.

One is the AI summaries for search engines (Brave browser, Google and Bing all have this) - some times it's just easier to go to the search results, but often having the actual answer on the page without clicking is nice.

The other is the AI agent assistance in the Warp terminal app. Recently I noticed it popping up suggestions when something I was trying to do didn't work. If you let it, it will take over and start trying things and working its way through several troubleshooting steps. This is especially useful when you're not familiar with particular commands or utilities. It will even analyze the content of configuration files looking for problems. If you take it step by step you can learn but also get things done much faster than having to Google for solutions every time something doesn't work. Especially useful when you don't program for a living. Like having to remember regex patterns, etc.

 

[calmloki]

I understood more than many of those individual words, but not as arranged and not all the words either. Maybe Grok can translate for me

 

[CarbonaNotGlue]

A few weeks ago, I asked it which team was the favorite to win the Euro Champions league cup. It told me Liverpool. When I pointed out that Liverpool had been eliminated the week prior, it apologized and acknowledged its error, saying it had reviewed stale internet data. However, I gave it a few medical questions and was very pleased with how it handled those, which aligned with our doctors treatment plans.

 

[Koolau]

I've not been particularly impressed so far w/ the AI chat clients, but two uses have become pretty handy.

One is the AI summaries for search engines (Brave browser, Google and Bing all have this) - some times it's just easier to go to the search results, but often having the actual answer on the page without clicking is nice.

The other is the AI agent assistance in the Warp terminal app. Recently I noticed it popping up suggestions when something I was trying to do didn't work. If you let it, it will take over and start trying things and working its way through several troubleshooting steps. This is especially useful when you're not familiar with particular commands or utilities. It will even analyze the content of configuration files looking for problems. If you take it step by step you can learn but also get things done much faster than having to Google for solutions every time something doesn't work. Especially useful when you don't program for a living. Like having to remember regex patterns, etc.

Okay, I guess I don't have a clue. In paragraph 2, are you saying that AI is using Google searches and picking the best answer? I hate most browsers because they don't answer my questions - they just show me "ads" (sponsored stuff.).

 

[dixonge]

Okay, I guess I don't have a clue. In paragraph 2, are you saying that AI is using Google searches and picking the best answer? I hate most browsers because they don't answer my questions - they just show me "ads" (sponsored stuff.).

No, the search engines are using AI!

(in Google, you have to click on the little lab beaker icon on the right and 'turn on' the AI summary feature)

example:

 

[Koolau]

No, the search engines are using AI!

(in Google, you have to click on the little lab beaker icon on the right and 'turn on' the AI summary feature)

example:

View attachment 54770

Thanks. I'm gonna have to study on this a bit more.

 

[GenXguy]

That lab beaker icon never shows in Firefox when I sign in, or Edge, but it still gives AI answers sometimes when searching. Apparently, that only shows in Chrome as I've seen it there.

 

[ransil]

Wait...it 'created" books that don't exist??

Yet ..... check back in 5 years

 

[DayDreaming]

I used Grok3 to help do the tax return for the estate of my deceased mother. I had a lot of questions, and found Grok's answers very helpful and thorough. I did verify everything by reading IRS form instructions and details, and I did find one thing that Grok got wrong. I told it so and it revised it's answers. So you do need to be careful with anything important like health issues or tax advice.

 

[Fermion]

I think for writing books it is not there. The dialog sounds very corny with too much use of metaphor and simile.

It does appear to do a fairly decent job of bouncing ideas though. I was trying to figure out if there were any possible alternate history where an electric vehicle could have been constructed in ancient Rome using available tooling and technology of the time period. Back and forth with AI on motor construction (it is quite easy to make an electric motor, you can do it with just 3 paper clips and a magnet for example) but we had a difficult time coming up with a battery. Grok said concentrated sulfuric acid was just not available and vinegar would only generate a small current. Even piles of vinegar batteries would just get to 10s of watts. I finally had the idea of maybe using electric rails, with the power source being a motor turned generator being driven by water and connected to the rails, with an electric motor cart riding on the rails. Unfortunately I ran out of my 10 free questions in 2 hours to continue this argument.

 

[badatmath]

I just went to ask Grok something and it required me to sign up (which I did not). So I guess the honeymoon is over. . . I'm going to try duckai next. No signup there but I don't have high expectations even though my question is simple. .

Edited to add: I thought duck was a waste of time at least for this purpose.

 

[Fotodog]

I just had my first experience with Grok, and was very impressed. I was a professional photographer during my career, and my DIL asked for a camera recommendation for their upcoming safari to Africa. I haven’t kept up with the latest developments so I spent about 5 hours using Google to research the current state of consumer level cameras with zoom lenses. My opinion was the best choice under $1500 was the Sony RX10 IV.

On a whim I decided to ask Grok the same question, and within a few seconds got a detailed reply comparing the top choices. And their recommendation: the Sony RX10 IV. I was blown away.

For those of you who seem to avoid Grok for political reasons, the latest poll showed that it’s almost equally balanced between those identifying as liberal and conservative, leaning slightly more liberal. You can find a broad range of posters and opinions, more than any other social media platform I have tried.

 

[Markola]

^^^ +1. Search engines are becoming antiquated. These AIs simply provide a superior experience.

 

[Time2]

This morning I watched a Peter Attia video and it was ask why do higher frequency electromagnetic waves have more energy, they didn't know. I ask Grok, it said because the mathematical formula has wavelength in the denominator, so energy gets higher with shorter wavelengths (higher frequency). Ok, I understand it is because the math says so, but I still wonder, why? OK, so I went further and got more info and now I have a better understanding, in fact it confirmed what I was contemplating. But in it's explanation it had something wrong. So I told Grok and it then agreed, confirmed it with math and then made new better analogies. Here is that Grok thread if interested. https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg==_eb1a1fbb-4371-49f5-a9a6-74d52915c3a4

 

[pb4uski]

I asked grok to do a market appraisal analysis of our house to assess the reasonableness of the county's appraised value by asking it "Provide a analysis of 2024 and 2025 sale transactions comparable to [my home address]".

It did a very credible job. I wasn't keen on the result, but it was in the ballpark with the comparables valuation analysis that the real estate broker that we used to buy the house last year came up with over the weekend.

 

[Masquernom]

I would like to lower my LDL further and asked Grok 3 to do some drug evaluations. I was very impressed with all the information it provided. I put together a plan to discuss with my cardiologist at the next appointment.

 

[dixonge]

^^^ +1. Search engines are becoming antiquated. These AIs simply provide a superior experience.

Except for a couple of points here...

1. Search engines also use AI to show you summaries of the top results, and
2. AI literally uses search engines as their training material

I do know a lot of people who just use AI now, but really it's just a different interface and summarization of the existing search results.

 

[HFWR]

Except for a couple of points here...

1. Search engines also use AI to show you summaries of the top results, and
2. AI literally uses search engines as their training material

I do know a lot of people who just use AI now, but really it's just a different interface and summarization of the existing search results.

The summaries are okay for a quick snapshot. As for AI, I can read, write, and cipher. (Channeling Jethro Bodine, which reminds me that I left Ellie May off of the teenage crush list.)

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

This morning I watched a Peter Attia video and it was ask why do higher frequency electromagnetic waves have more energy, they didn't know. I ask Grok, it said because the mathematical formula has wavelength in the denominator, so energy gets higher with shorter wavelengths (higher frequency). Ok, I understand it is because the math says so, but I still wonder, why? OK, so I went further and got more info and now I have a better understanding, in fact it confirmed what I was contemplating. But in it's explanation it had something wrong. So I told Grok and it then agreed, confirmed it with math and then made new better analogies. Here is that Grok thread if interested. https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg==_eb1a1fbb-4371-49f5-a9a6-74d52915c3a4

If the energy in EM waves was not quantized into photons, then it wouldn't make any sense to say that "higher freq waves are more energetic." The energy carried by a wave would be related to it's frequency AND its amplitude. You could have high-energy, but low-freq. waves, if they had a large amplitude, for example.

When Einstein proposed (in a bit of an ad hoc manner) that the energy in EM waves was quantized into disrcete energy bundles, it was to explain observations of the photoelectric effect. The prediction that E=h*nu was consistent with observation from experiments on the photoelectric effect (as well as adumbrations from Planck's musings about the nature of blackbody radiation).

(BTW, it was for this that Einstein was awarded his one and only Nobel Prize. Doubtless he deserved others, but such is life.)

Said another way, Grok's analogies are bullshit. Relating frequency to energy is only sensible *IF* energy is quantized into deiscreted packets (photons). There is no classical analogy that explains this.

 

[marko]

Been playing with Grok3 a few times a day for about a month.

Truly impressed. Financial, health and general questions answered in a very conversational tone.

The response is immediate, and it keeps track of the subject so that a follow-up question doesn't require restating. It's like this forum but with faster replies and less thread drift! And easy to ask something minor/simple/insignificant without bothering the crew here.

Sure, you can trip it up with extremely difficult, detailed or trick questions, but for day to day I've found it helpful and fascinating.

For better or worse, only the beginning.