Artificial Intelligence?

[Permanut]

I inquired in Google about how much paint would be needed to paint an 800 square foot apartment.

The answer provided by AI was 2 gallons, since a gallon of paint will cover about 400 square feet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. It's the area of the walls that matter.

And even a human cannot begin to guess the wall area of an 800 square foot apartment.

Dumb question. Not enough information or values. Sort of asking "what do one and something else add up to?"

[Permanut]

2. Zackly.

I would have expected AI to respond as you did.

[cachukis]

3. Search query was incomplete.

[Permanut]

4. AI should have said so.

[Wounded Bear]

5. AI is not psychic yet...nt

[snot]

6. We are doomed.

[hunter]

7. As little as possible, according to a student housing slumlord I worked for long ago.

He'd paint everything -- walls, ceilings, doors, cabinets, trim -- with paint color-matched to KILZ, a cover-up spray primer that had such a high level of volatile organic compounds ( VOC ) then that it would give you a buzz if you used it in a closed room.

It worked on lipstick, blood, feces... all the stuff you might find smeared on the walls after a wild party or psychotic break. Scrape the surface flat, spray with KILZ, done.

Preparing an apartment for new tenants was almost as easy except you used less KILZ and more paint.

How much paint? A gallon might get you through several apartments, fast and cheap.

It was hellish work for a perfectionist like me but it was far from the worst job I ever had.

Would an AI tell you that?

[Permanut]

8. Boy, slumlord is right..

What a horrible job.

We've had rentals for many years, and always paint between tenants, two colors with trim, semi- gloss in kitchen and bath, you know that drill. Wanted each one to be something we would move into. I figure that since I do the painting, I'm cutting costs that way.

I've calculated paint quantities before, and the arithmetic is laborious but simple and straightforward. I was just surprised that an online tool with "intelligence" in the name would blow the arithmetic so badly.