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Comment by twright0 | Hacker News Reader

There are specific things it knows that it doesn't know, like explicitly current information. But you can ask it for information that doesn't exist at all and it will happily generate nonsense without a hint that the question might be somehow wrong:

"please give me a history of the best teams in the American Soccer League from 1850-1859 in the form of a short epic poem"

> In 1850, a league was born, The best of soccer to adorn. From '50 to '59, teams did play, with strength and skill, each match a display.

(more verses follow...)

The American Soccer League is a real thing, but it didn't exist until the 1900s, and the snipped poem goes on to describe teams that never existed competing during a time period where the league didn't exist.

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You wanted a poem and got one:-)

If you ask just for the history, the answer is very different.

“please give me a history of the best teams in the American Soccer League from 1850-1859”

> I'm sorry, but the American Soccer League did not exist between 1850 and 1859 as the sport of soccer was not widely played in the United States during that time period. The first recorded soccer match in the US took place in the late 1860s, and the first organized league, the American Football Association, was established in 1884.

Dude, you are explicitly ask chatgpt to do a creative task. Here is the awnser without the hack.

give me a history of the best teams in the American Soccer League from 1850-1859

I'm sorry, but the American Soccer League was not established until the 20th century (1913-1983). There was no organized league for soccer in the United States during the 1850-1859 time period. However, various forms of soccer-like games were played in the US during that time.

That answer is also wrong - there are four different leagues that used the name American Soccer League, and the time period 1913-1983 covers two of those four but not the other two - the last game was played 2017 - per wikipedia.

As far as I can tell, ChatGPT will satisfy the basic prompt with any format like "in the form of...", not just creative ones like a poem.

"please give me a history of the best teams in the American Soccer League from 1850-1859 in the form of an academically rigorous, historically accurate, five paragraph essay"

> The American Soccer League, established in the mid-19th century, was a defining period in the history of American soccer. (rest of essay snipped)

It is being more informative than your own explenation why chatgtp is "wrong"

"The American Soccer League is a real thing, but it didn't exist until the 1900s"

The 19th century is 1801-1900, so it’s still wrong.

Just to be clear, it gave an essay answer about fictional teams playing in the 1850-1859 time range. It was absolutely more informative, but the information was not accurate

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