How the AI reads words
Why the AI sometimes gets letters wrong
How many R's are in strawberry?
Ask an AI to count some letters in a word. See what it says.
Say the word strawberry out loud. Now count the R's on your fingers. How many did you get?
Ask an AI the same question. It might say two! But if we look, there are really three.
So why does the AI get it wrong? Let's find out.
How many letter R's are in the word strawberry?
How many letter P's are in the word pineapple?
Look at what the AI said and ask:
- Did the AI get it right?
- How many R's did YOU count?
- Why do you think the AI might have got it wrong?
The AI sees words in chunks
When you read a word, you see each letter. S. T. R. A. W.
But the AI does not read letter by letter. It sees each word in big chunks.
Think about a slice of bread. You could tear it into tiny crumbs. Or you could tear it into just a few big bits. The AI tears words into big bits, not tiny letters.
That's why counting is tricky
So here is the funny part. Ask the AI: how many R's are in strawberry? It might say two.
But we know there are three! Look: stRawbeRRy.
The AI isn't being silly. It just doesn't see each little letter. It sees the word in chunks. So it counts the R's it can see in those chunks, and it can miss some.
What we can do
So what do we do if we really want to count letters?
We do it ourselves! Point to each letter with your finger. Say them out loud. A grown-up can help too.
The AI is great for lots of things, like drawing pictures and telling stories. But for counting little letters, our own eyes are best.