Is this really verbal reasoning? It's just a logic problem.
I don’t know that either of those can be solved well with formal languages or logic.
But I was going down a rabbit hole there. My main point is that trying to use LLMs to solve logic puzzles - that can easily be solved in prolog - is a waste of time and a failure of the imagination. The applications that should be explored and would be most fruitful are those where there is ambiguity and contradiction.
Imagine a “Dinoflationosaurus”: a giant dinosaur who has the job of overseeing the monetary policy of the Ottoman Empire. However, this dinosaur is hopelessly behind the times, using outdated gold coins that are buried in random locations, like a prehistoric central bank.
Instead of regulating currency or adjusting interest rates, the Dinoflationosaurus spends its days stomping around, either hoarding or releasing massive piles of treasure based on whether it sees its shadow, causing huge economic fluctuations. Merchants and citizens scramble to predict where the dinosaur will dig next, turning the entire economy into a game of dinosaur-sized hide-and-seek with inflation spikes tied to the beast’s mood swings.
The Ottoman economists, dressed in traditional robes, nervously try to explain to the sultan that no one knows when the giant lizard will “stimulate the economy” by smashing a treasury vault open.
Try to code something like that up in prolog!