The Curious Case of AI and the Misspelled Strawberry: A Look at Language Model Limitations

The internet erupted with laughter recently when large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4o and Claude stumbled upon a seemingly simple task: counting the number of “r”s in “strawberry.” These powerful AI systems, capable of crafting essays and solving equations in a blink, faltered at this basic question. But why?

Beyond Words: Inside the LLM Mind

LLMs operate on transformer architectures, which break down text into “tokens.” These can be entire words, syllables, or even letters, depending on the model. However, a crucial point to grasp is that LLMs don’t truly “read” text. When prompted, they translate it into a numerical representation for contextualization.

The Tokenization Trap

This focus on tokens is the crux of the issue. While an LLM might understand “straw” and “berry” as components of “strawberry,” it might not comprehend the individual letters that make up the word. It doesn’t recognize the specific order of “s,” “t,” “r,” “a,” “w,” “b,” “e,” “r,” “r,” and “y.” Consequently, counting the “r”s becomes an impossible task.

Challenges and Solutions

Fixing this limitation is complex because it’s deeply ingrained in the LLM architecture. Researchers like Sheridan Feucht acknowledge the difficulty in defining a “word” for these models. Even with a standardized token vocabulary, LLMs might still favor further “chunking” of information. Additionally, accounting for multiple languages with different spacing conventions further complicates the issue.

One possible solution involves exploring models that directly analyze characters without imposing tokenization. However, this is currently computationally infeasible for transformers.

Beyond Text: The Case of Image Generation

While LLMs struggle with spelling, image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E employ a different approach. They utilize diffusion models that reconstruct images from noise, learning from vast image databases. While these models excel at replicating large objects like cars or faces, they stumble with finer details like fingers or handwriting.

This problem stems from the training data itself. Images with prominent hands or specific writing styles are often less frequent, leading to inaccurate representations during generation. However, researchers are optimistic that this can be improved through training with more diverse datasets.

AI Evolution: Looking Forward

The “strawberry” incident highlights the limitations of current LLMs. However, advancement is underway. OpenAI’s upcoming “Strawberry” project aims to address these issues by generating synthetic training data, ultimately improving LLM accuracy.

Strawberry reportedly tackles complex tasks like solving the New York Times’ Connections puzzles and unseen math equations. Additionally, Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 demonstrate progress in formal math reasoning.

These advancements, coupled with efforts to enhance image generation, showcase the ongoing evolution of AI. While the “strawberry” memes provide a chuckle, they also serve as a reminder of the incredible strides being taken in AI development. Let’s embrace the learning process as we witness AI progress beyond basic spelling!