Reading the article, and painting it with my own experiences with Google failing me, it looks like Google is best when you want to understand a specific, named (possibly niche) object, but that chat GPT potentially has an advantage when you want to understand two things with a specific relationship, or if you can’t name the specific object you want but can only describe it in relation to other objects.
An example from my own life. I few years ago I wanted to know if it was possible to put a latex table in a footnote. I still don’t know if it is possible, because Google buried me in websties telling me how to attach a footnote to a table—a completely different formatting problem that shares the same two key words. I suspect chat GPT would be good for this.
I can’t tell you whether this is right or not but this is what ChatGPT thinks:
“Is it possible to put a latex table in a footnote?”
“Yes, it is possible to include a LaTeX table in a footnote. You can do this by using the footnote or footnotetext commands provided by the footmisc package.
Here is an example of how to use these commands to include a table in a footnote:
\usepackage{footmisc}
...
\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{c c c}
A & B & C \\
1 & 2 & 3 \\
4 & 5 & 6
\end{tabular}
\caption{Table caption}
\end{table}
...
\footnote{
\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{c c c}
D & E & F \\
7 & 8 & 9 \\
10 & 11 & 12
\end{tabular}
\caption{Table caption in footnote}
\end{table}
}
Note that when including a table in a footnote, you should use the table environment as you would normally, but place it inside the footnote or footnotetext command. You should also make sure to use the [h] option for the table environment to prevent the table from floating.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.”
Oh, thanks for trying it. Its a good effort in a way, it is definitely it trying to put the table in the footnote. So has the right target. Unfortunately from my test it doesn’t seem to actually work—no error message, but the table doesn’t render. It is so much less frustrating to see it fail at the right goal than provide a lot of information about a distinct goal that happens to share the same keywords.
Reading the article, and painting it with my own experiences with Google failing me, it looks like Google is best when you want to understand a specific, named (possibly niche) object, but that chat GPT potentially has an advantage when you want to understand two things with a specific relationship, or if you can’t name the specific object you want but can only describe it in relation to other objects.
An example from my own life. I few years ago I wanted to know if it was possible to put a latex table in a footnote. I still don’t know if it is possible, because Google buried me in websties telling me how to attach a footnote to a table—a completely different formatting problem that shares the same two key words. I suspect chat GPT would be good for this.
I can’t tell you whether this is right or not but this is what ChatGPT thinks:
“Is it possible to put a latex table in a footnote?”
“Yes, it is possible to include a LaTeX table in a footnote. You can do this by using the
footnoteorfootnotetextcommands provided by thefootmiscpackage.Here is an example of how to use these commands to include a table in a footnote:
\usepackage{footmisc}...\begin{table}[h]\centering\begin{tabular}{c c c}A & B & C \\1 & 2 & 3 \\4 & 5 & 6\end{tabular}\caption{Table caption}\end{table}...\footnote{\begin{table}[h]\centering\begin{tabular}{c c c}D & E & F \\7 & 8 & 9 \\10 & 11 & 12\end{tabular}\caption{Table caption in footnote}\end{table}}Note that when including a table in a footnote, you should use the
tableenvironment as you would normally, but place it inside thefootnoteorfootnotetextcommand. You should also make sure to use the[h]option for thetableenvironment to prevent the table from floating.I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.”
Oh, thanks for trying it. Its a good effort in a way, it is definitely it trying to put the table in the footnote. So has the right target. Unfortunately from my test it doesn’t seem to actually work—no error message, but the table doesn’t render. It is so much less frustrating to see it fail at the right goal than provide a lot of information about a distinct goal that happens to share the same keywords.