I used ChatGPT and the option built into the Bing search engine. Both seem like cool tools to me, but there’s still a long way to go before they’re smart. 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 he The game “sink the fleet” is quite simple and many will have played. We have a 10×10 board, a 2 space long ship, two 3 space ships, a 4 space ship and a 5 space ship. In the array, we can only place them vertically and horizontally in whatever distribution we like.
In turn, each of the players shoots and the one receiving the attack must say water or hit, when the shot is in a square where part of the ship is. The ship sinks when it has received several hits, for example, the 3 square ship sinks after receiving three hits. Everything very simple.
Since this is a simple game and can be played without needing a GUI, I thought of play with ChatGPT. There the experience was not pleasant, since the first times with a simple prompt, he did not find out. I showed his board where there were no ships, he put only two and asked me to attack. In the end, I got a pretty good one, but sometimes he takes it how he wants and doesn’t do what he should.
The last 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, 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 place them, let me know and we begin the battle. The number of ships and their size are conventional for the game. Once you have placed the ships, tell me and we will start the game. Rules:
“First you’ll shoot my board, then I’ll shoot yours.
– If you hit, I’ll say “hit” and if you miss, “water”
– You must respond only to what has been said above and to the position in which you attack me.
– Your moves must be random
How did things go?
The truth is that nothing bad started. He told me he had placed the ships and I asked him to start the game. Everything is fine 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. Obviously after shooting it was his turn, so I had to remind him.
I didn’t give it more importance, it’s something that can happen. We all have an ignorant friend who is occasionally distracted by a fly. The problem came later in the game.
As usual, when you touch a point, you search around that point to sink the ship. I shot D5 and hit it. So I attacked D4 and D6, without success. SO C5who was a hit and in B5, water. By telling myself that I touched, but did not sink, I fired at E5, playing still but not sinking. So at this point I thought it was bigger and I fired at F6but it tells me water. Of course, it’s obviously impossible for the ship to stay afloat.
I take it that I undoubtedly sank one of your ships, to which I Answer that I am wrong. So, I detail the successes and failures and he tells me that I’m right, that indeed I sank one of his ships.
In the same game, this has happened to me before, successfully attacking I6 and J6. Then I shot I5, I7, J5, J7 and H6 but they were all water. Of course, I sank two ships for him, but he didn’t tell 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 issues, but the ones displayed are quite large.
I have to say the first prompt was simpler and gave me a 5×5 array so I had to specify that the array was 10×10. The only thing that has always been clear is the number of ships and their size.
Several times I had to tell him not to tell me where he places the ships, to the point of specifying it. Theoretically, it’s one of the basic rules, don’t tell your opponent where your ships are.
In short, ask him to give you a soup recipe, don’t ask him for very specific things either, he’s lost
