Google Bard Fakes Math Skills Despite Being Incompetent

While ChatGPT, although slightly more proficient, still struggles to identify errors when prompted.

Today I was preparing for a year 7 math lesson, and decided to test Google Bard’s math skills by asking it the questions my class is doing:

I have a cage with cats and birds, there are 12 heads and 32 feet, how many birds and cats?

Bard replied:

Let x be the number of birds and y be the number of cats. x+y=12. 2x+4y=32. Adding the two equations, we get 6x=44. Dividing both sides by 6, we get x=7. Subtracting 7 from 12, we get y=5. So there are 7 birds and 5 cats.

Bard’s response to the question was riddled with errors:

1. Bard incorrectly added the two equations and arrived at an incorrect value of 6x=44;
2. Dividing both sides by 6 would not yield x=7.

So I decided to ask ChatGPT the same question.

In contrast, ChatGPT provided a correct solution with a clear explanation.