I prompted Chat GPT-4o mini to find me a particular quote. My initial prompt was “find me a published quote that means people often fight the hardest about things that matter the least.” Chat GPT’s responses completely missed the theme. I believe the straightdope hivemind will do much better in less time. Please have at it!
The initial response to the prompt from Chat GPT-4.0 mini contained two quotes:
Mark Twain: “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” and
Friedrich Nietsche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.”
The suggested quotes didn’t get better from there until I gave up.
Is this basically what you’re pointing to?
Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.
No, but it’s way closer than Chat GPT. Your statement is more about fighting harder when we have less foundation on which to even base our disagreement.
The sentiment you’re referring to is encapsulated in Sayre’s law, which states: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” This observation is attributed to Wallace Stanley Sayre, a U.S. political scientist and professor at Columbia University. A corollary to this law explains, “That is why academic politics are so bitter.” Quote Investigator+2Wikipedia+2Ask MetaFilter+2
This concept has been echoed by various figures. For instance, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is often quoted as saying, “University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.” Goodreads+3BrainyQuote+3Ask MetaFilter+3
These observations highlight the paradox that disputes in environments like academia can become particularly intense, despite involving issues of relatively minor importance.
Chat GPT 4.5 with web search seems to get the right answer.
Indeed. But the game was to see if Straightdope could beat a lighter weight model.
Yes, and I’ll assume you didn’t peek. Still a pretty fast result in my opinion. Thanks.
I’m not sure what constitutes peeking, but I just googled the phrasing I was familiar with, “because the stakes are so low”.
I meant peeking at the answer above yours. Or using AI. I think what you did counts. I found the quote the same way when I needed it but then I tested the AI model and was kind of shocked at how far off it was.
I’m starting to think that “A.I.” means “Artificial Idiot”