Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Why you should never trust AI

As I mentioned earlier this week, I now have an e-scooter.

Since this is a valuable piece of kit I figured it would be sensible to ensure its security by investing in some kind of lock for when I might leave the thing parked outside the supermarket. There are some folk who feel they have a right to take anything that isn't nailed down so I wasn't going to risk losing my ride to an opportunistic theft.

Although the scooter has an immobilizer that doesn't stop someone from actually picking it up and throwing it in the back of a ute or simply wheeling it away so I began the task of evaluating the physical restraint options.

Naturally, I turned to the internet.

A quick Google search turned up countless different chain, cable and folding locks, all of which claimed to be "the best".

I watched a few YouTube videos, read some reviews and was generally left scratching my head.

Then I figured I'd just ask AI.

My locally hosted AI system gave some pretty generic advice but couldn't dip into brand/mode-specific detail because it's only got 2 billion parameters, hence I turned to Gemini.

Google's LLM gave me some more brand-specific advice and suggested that a chain lock would be a good compromise between security and price.

Now I've done enough AI-ing to know that you never take an LLM's advice or recommendations without verifying things so I began to challenge it.

The chain option is pretty good but any decent chain will be quite heavy. The one I was suggested comes in at over 1Kg so I asked Gemini how I should store that chain-lock when I was riding my escooter.

It told me that I could wear it across my shoulder like a bandolier.

Sounds great... right?

Well no.. because the damned thing is only 900mm long so there's no way it's going to fit over a shoulder like a sash.

It then suggested that I could wrap it around the handlebars of my escooter when I was riding it -- until I pointed out that 1Kg of additional weight that high up and on the handle-bars would likely have a significantly adverse effect on the handling.

Of course Gemini agreed and apologised for its mistake.

I then queried whether a better and more secure option might not be to make my own chainlock by purchasing a slightly longer length of security chain and a decent padlock. Gemini agreed that this was a sound option with greater value for money.

It initially suggested a Yale disk clock for the padlock and a 10mm security chain, both available from Bunnings. An excellent combination it told me with confidence.

I then pointed out that it would be impossible to connect the two ends of the chain using the padlock suggested because the gap where the shackle rotates is too small.

More apologies from Gemini which went on to suggest a stainless steel padlock by Lockwood.

WTF? If I'm looking for maximum security I won't be using a padlock with a stainless steel shackle, I want a much harder metal such as a boron steel alloy won't I?

Even more apologies from Gemini which condeded that, of course, I was right.

It then suggested a Masterlock, until I also pointed out that almost every lock in the Masterlock range can be opened with a simply bump-key or raking pick.

The acknowledgements and apologies kept coming.

What did I learn from this session with one of the world's leading "state of the art" LLMs that runs on huge racks of ultra-fast GPUs and servers?

Well if I was just a "regular guy" who accepted AI's recommendations at face value and without having sufficient knowledge to challenge them, I'd likely have wasted a snot-load of money on things that simply would not work. Fortunately however, I know enough about engineering, metalurgy and simple physics that I spotted all the mistakes Gemini made and avoided relying on its specious recommendations.

In the end, Gemini was useless at this task but I've simply applied my own knowledge and some extra information found in YouTube videos to come up with an interrim solution. I now have a solution to locking up my scooter in such a way that it'll take at least a minute or two's hard work with an angle-grinder to release it if anyone tries to steal it. The solution I've chosen is not the best but it does represent pretty good value for money and will suffice until I come up with a longer-term, more secure option.

Never trust AI to give advice in a field where you have no knowledge or skill of your own. Sadly, this is where most people tend to rely most heavily on AI.

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Here is a PERMANENT link to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font