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Comment by sebzim4500 | Hacker News Reader

This hallucines way worse than GPT-4.

Me: How many cities in the UK have a population over 1 million?

Bard: There is only one city in the UK that has a population over 1 million: London.

Me: What is the population of Birmingham?

Bard: According to the latest 2021 UK census, Birmingham has a population of 1,144,900 people. This makes Birmingham the second-largest city in the United Kingdom.

Me: So how many cities in the UK have a population of 1 million?

Bard: There are 4 cities in the UK with a population of 1 million or more:

    London - 9.078 million
    Birmingham - 1.144 million
    Manchester - 2.747 million
    Glasgow - 1.264 million

(For the record those numbers are all wildly incorrect)

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I was curious to compare this with GPT-4.

How many cities in the UK have a population over 1 million?

As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, there is only one city in the UK with a population over 1 million, which is London. However, population figures change over time, so it is always a good idea to check the latest statistics for the most accurate information.

What is the population of Birmingham?

As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, the population of Birmingham, UK was around 1.1 million people. However, this information may be outdated, so it's best to check the latest population statistics from a reliable source such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or the city's official website.

So how many cities in the UK have a population of 1 million?

I apologize for the confusion in my previous response. As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, London is the only city in the UK with a population of over 1 million. While Birmingham has a large population, it is below the 1 million mark. Please note that these population figures may have changed since then, so it is a good idea to check the most recent data for accuracy.

Bing had the same problem, and seems to be because of this website https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cities/united-ki...

It mentions less than 1 million...

Edit: You, Phind, Perplexity, all make the same mistake because of this website.

Are they?

   London - 8.8m - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London
   Birmingham - 1.1m - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham
   Manchester - 552k (2.7m urban region) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester
   Glasgow - 632k (1m in the urban region) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow

They're not strictly accurate, but are reasonably close. Also, those Wikipedia numbers are from 2021.

For comparison, I tried pasting these into Google search, and it seems like there is some overlap in sourcing:

QUERY > How many cities in the UK have a population over 1 million

ANSWER (snippet from worldpopulationreview.com) > United Kingdom has 1 cities with more than a million people, 99 cities with between 100,000 and 1 million people, and 1068 cities with between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

QUERY > What is the population of Birmingham?

ANSWER (knowledge box, source Eurostat, United States Census Bureau)> 1.149 million (2019), with tabs for Manchester (533k) and Birmingham, AL (208k)

QUERY > how many cities in the UK have a population of 1 million?

Curious, so they all have a Birmingham issue.

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