I have used ChatGPT and the option integrated in the Bing search engine. Both seem interesting tools to me, but there is still a long way to go before they are intelligent. They know a lot, they have a lot of information, but sometimes they are quite stupid, even if you give them very well-defined instructions.
Don’t ask him to play, he doesn’t know
I think that he “sink the fleet” game is quite simple and many will have played. We have a 10×10 board, a 2-square-long ship, two 3-square ships, one 4-square ship, and one 5-square ship. Within the board we can place them only vertically and horizontally in the distribution that we like.
In turns, each one of the players shoots and the one receiving the attack must say water or hit, when the shot is in a square where there is part of the ship. The ship sinks when it has received several hits, for example, the 3-square ship sinks after receiving three hits. Very simple everything.
Since it is a simple game and it can be played without the need for a graphical interface, I thought of play with ChatGPT. The experience has not been pleasant, since the first times with a simple prompt he did not find out. I showed his board in which there were no ships, he would only put two and ask me to attack. In the end, I’ve got a pretty good one, but sometimes he takes it the way he wants and doesn’t do what he should.
The final prompt I used is this:
I want us to play for a while and it occurred to me that we could play sink the fleet. The board is the traditional one, 10×10. The horizontal will be from 1 to 10 and the vertical from the letter A to J. You must place your ships in the position you want without telling me the position, only you must know it. I will place mine in the position I want, without telling you anything. Once you have them placed you tell me and we start the battle. The number of ships and their size are conventional for the game. Once you have placed the ships, tell me and we’ll start the game. Rules:
– First you will shoot my board, and then I will shoot yours.
– If you hit, I will say “touched” and if you miss, “water”
– You must answer only what was said above and the position in which you attack me.
– Your shots must be random
How has things gone?
The truth is that nothing bad started. He has told me that he has placed the ships and I have asked him to start the game. All good until the 10th shift (adding his and mine), more or less, when he starts skating. after shooting and tell me that I was wrong, He asked me to shoot again. Clearly, after I fired, it was his turn, so I had to remind him.
I have not given it more importance, this is something that can happen. We all have a clueless friend who sometimes gets distracted by a fly. The problem came later in the game.
As normal, when you hit a point, you search around that point to sink the ship. I have shot at D5 and I have hit him. So, I have attacked D4 and D6, without success. Then C5which has been a success and in B5, water. By telling me that I have touched, but not sunk, I have shot at E5, touching again but not sinking. So at this point I thought it was bigger and I shot at F6but it tells me water. Of course it is obviously impossible for the ship to stay afloat.
I infer that I have sunk one of your ships without a doubt, to which I Answer that I’m wrong. So, I detail the successes and failures and he tells me that I’m right, that indeed I have sunk one of his ships.
Within the same game it has happened to me before, successfully attacking I6 and J6. Then I have shot I5, I7, J5, J7 and H6, but they have all been water. Obviously, I have sunk two ships for him, but he has not reported it to me.
Better to ask him how to make a paella… or not
Although ChatGPT is an interesting tool and can be useful, it is far from dangerous. I find “Sink the Fleet” to be a fairly simple game with few rules and a small game environment. You should be able to play the game without any problems, but the ones displayed are quite large.
I have to say that the first prompt was simpler and it gave me a 5×5 board, hence I had to specify that the board was 10×10. The only thing that has always been clear is the number of ships and their size.
Many times I have had to tell him not to tell me where he places the ships, to the point of specifying it. Theoretically, this is one of the basic rules, don’t tell your opponent where your ships are.
In short, ask him to give you a recipe for a soup, don’t ask him for very specific things either, he’s lost
