Musings of a DevSecOps Engineer

I was browsing Mastodon today and saw a puzzle.

I was able to figure out the code fairly easily in my head, but for some reason, I decided that I wanted to see how ChatGPT handled the puzzle. I used ChatGPT4 and ended up having to give the answer to the LLM before it was finally able to work through the rules.  To the LLM’s benefit, when I informed it that it had come to the wrong answer, it acknowledged and came back with a different answer, and it explained it’s logic it tried to use, so it was easy to point to where it had been tripped up.

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Prompt:

Please try to figure out the three digit code based on the following clues: 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed. 738 – Nothing is correct 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

ChatGPT

Let’s analyze the clues one by one:

1. 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place.
2. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed.
3. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed.
4. 738 – Nothing is correct.
5. 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

From clue 4, we know that the numbers 7, 3, and 8 are not in the code.

From clue 1, we know that one of the numbers is 6, 8, or 2, and it’s in the correct position. Since 8 is not in the code, the first number must be 6.

Now let’s examine clue 2: 614. We know that 6 is already in the correct place, so 1 must be the correct but misplaced number. That means the third number is 1.

Considering clue 3, we know that two numbers are correct but misplaced. Since we already have 6 and 1 in the correct places, the last correct number must be 2. Therefore, the second number is 2.

So, the three-digit code is 621.

Me:

There is a flaw in your logic. Clue one says that there is only one number that is correct and placed in the correct place, but your answer contains two of the numbers from that clue, so 621 cannot be the correct solution. Keep in mind, each digit in the code can be 0 to 9.

ChatGPT

You’re right, there is a flaw in my logic. Let’s re-evaluate the clues:

1. 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place.
2. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed.
3. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed.
4. 738 – Nothing is correct.
5. 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

From clue 4, we know that the numbers 7, 3, and 8 are not in the code.

Analyze clue 1 (682):

• If 6 is correct and in the right place, then clue 2 (614) would have two correct but misplaced numbers (6 and 1), which contradicts clue 2. So, 6 cannot be in the right place.
• If 8 is correct and in the right place, then clue 5 (780) would have a number in the right place, which contradicts clue 5. So, 8 cannot be in the right place.
• Therefore, 2 must be the correct number and in the right place (third position).

Now we have the code as _ _ 2.

Analyze clue 2 (614):

• We already know that 6 cannot be in the first position. So, it must be 1 in the first position and 6 in another position.

Now we have the code as 1 _ 2.

Analyze clue 3 (206):

• Since 2 is in the correct position, the two correct but misplaced numbers must be 0 and 6. We already know that 6 cannot be in the first position, so 6 must be in the second position.

Now we have the code as 1 6 2, which doesn’t contradict any of the clues. So, the three-digit code is 162.

Me:

There is still a flaw, since clue 1 says there is only one correct number, 2 and 6 cannot be in the final answer. please try again.
ChatGPT

You are right; I made another mistake in my logic. Let’s try again:

1. 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place.
2. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed.
3. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed.
4. 738 – Nothing is correct.
5. 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

From clue 4, we know that the numbers 7, 3, and 8 are not in the code.

Analyze clue 1 (682):

• Since there’s only one correct number in the right place, the code cannot have both 6 and 2.

Analyze clue 3 (206):

• Two numbers are correct but misplaced, which means the code must have 0 and either 6 or 2.

Now we have two possible cases:

• The code has 0 and 6, in which case it must be 0 _ 6 or 6 _ 0.
• The code has 0 and 2, in which case it must be 0 _ 2 or 2 _ 0.

Analyze clue 5 (780):

• One number is correct but wrongly placed. That number must be 0.
• Therefore, the code cannot have 0 in the second position.

Now we have two possible cases left:

• The code has 0 and 6, in which case it must be 0 6 _.
• The code has 0 and 2, in which case it must be 2 0 _.

Analyze clue 2 (614):

• One number is correct but incorrectly placed.
• If the code is 0 6 _, then 1 must be in the last position (0 6 1).
• If the code is 2 0 _, then 6 must be in the last position (2 0 6).

Now we have two possible codes:

• 061
• 206

Analyze clue 1 (682) again:

• One number is correct and placed in the right place.
• In the code 061, 6 is the correct number and placed in the right place.
• In the code 206, no number is correct and placed in the right place, which contradicts clue 1.

So, the correct three-digit code is 061.

Me:

For rule one, 6 was in the first position of the 3 digit code, so your answer cannot be correct. I think the answer is either 012 or 042. Can you refute either of those options?

ChatGPT

Apologies for my previous mistakes. Let’s reevaluate the clues with the two possible answers you provided:

1. 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place.
2. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed.
3. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed.
4. 738 – Nothing is correct.
5. 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

Now we have two possible codes:

• 012
• 042

Let’s analyze the clues for each of the two possibilities:

For the code 012:

• Clue 1: The correct number in the right place is 2.
• Clue 2: The correct number but misplaced is 1.
• Clue 3: The two correct numbers but misplaced are 0 and 2.
• Clue 4: There are no numbers from the code 738 in our code (012), so this clue is satisfied.
• Clue 5: The correct number but misplaced is 0.

All the clues are satisfied with the code 012.

For the code 042:

• Clue 1: The correct number in the right place is 2.
• Clue 2: There are no correct numbers in our code (042), which contradicts clue 2.
• Clue 3: The two correct numbers but misplaced are 0 and 2.
• Clue 4: There are no numbers from the code 738 in our code (042), so this clue is satisfied.
• Clue 5: The correct number but misplaced is 0.

Since the code 042 contradicts clue 2, it cannot be the correct answer.

Therefore, the correct three-digit code is 012.

Me:

I think you have it reversed, because of clue 2, the answer must be 042. Based on that rule, 1 could not be in the center of the 3 digit code. so the answer is 042.

ChatGPT

You are correct, and I apologize for my mistake. Let’s re-evaluate the clues with the correct answer:

1. 682 – One number is correct and placed in the right place.
2. 614 – One number is correct, but incorrectly placed.
3. 206 – Two numbers are correct, but incorrectly placed.
4. 738 – Nothing is correct.
5. 780 – One number is correct, but wrongly placed.

For the code 042:

• Clue 1: The correct number in the right place is 2.
• Clue 2: The correct number but misplaced is 4.
• Clue 3: The two correct numbers but misplaced are 0 and 2.
• Clue 4: There are no numbers from the code 738 in our code (042), so this clue is satisfied.
• Clue 5: The correct number but misplaced is 0.

All the clues are satisfied with the code 042.

Therefore, the correct three-digit code is 042.

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The doom and gloom^tm and hype trains that many talking heads spouted when ChatGPT was first getting recognized was intended to get people talking about AI. One side was claiming AI was going to take people’s jobs and ruin everything, while others talked about all the amazing things it would just do for us.

We are no where near the point where a “General AI” is going to take over and do everything.
That is the equivalent of living in the 1950’s and thinking everyone will have flying cars and commuting to Mars by the year 2000.

AI as a tool, has some really cool features that will help people learn, and be more effective, but it has some very real blind spots, and some ethical complications involved with it. Some examples include:

• Dealing with training data bias
• Ethically sourcing training data
• Logic Puzzles
• Clear review of how conclusions are made

AI can be dangerous when we do not understand how it works, and we put it in a position to do things without oversight. Some of the dangerous things AI has been used for that it probably shouldn’t be.

• Determining bail eligibility and amount
• Full Self Driving Cars
• Hiring processes
• Determining someone’s likelihood to commit a crime

I know certain big names have said we need to slow down on development of AI. Many of them I suspect are just trying to get their names in the conversation, others want it to be slowed down until they can figure out how to monetize the services.

AI and LLM are not going away, but we should keep an eye on what it is being used for, and what is being used to train it.