> How many 'r's are in strawberry?
> ChatGPT said: The word "strawberry" has 2 'r's.
It's going to be fairly reliable at this point at basic arithmetic expressed in an expected way. That's pretty baked in. Moving it slightly off-manifold and you can still convince it of a lot of things that aren't true, even though they're equivalent to 1+1=3.
I tried your formulation on the ChatGPT homepage in incognito mode (to rule out personalization for me). It said 2, so it's possible you saw that as well. I tried the same experiment again (new incognito mode, same phrasing) and it said 3.
That made me curious if phrasing made a difference and how often it would go wrong.
I tried 5 times with my own phrasing ("So, how many Rs in strawberry?") and got 5 times 3 as an answer.
I tried 5 times with your phrasing ("How many 'r's are in strawberry?") and also got 5 times 3 as an answer.
So 2 is an answer that can be given, but seems to be rare. At least in my tests.
But sure, I'll try this for you. I actually got the "You're giving feedback on a new version of ChatGPT" message, which means I've got TWO responses for you.
--- Response 1
Me: So, how many Rs in strawberry?
ChatGPT: There are three R's in strawberry:
* stʀawbeʀʀy
(One at position 3, and a double dose at the end. R-rich!)
--- Response 2
There are three R's in strawberry.
Count ’em:
* s
* t
* r
* a
* w
* b
* e
* r
* r
* y
The R’s are at positions 3, 8, and 9. (And now I can’t stop hearing it pronounced “strawbuh-RRR-y.”)
---
So now it has proven you a liar twice.