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arXiv:2502.16705cs.CL

Can ChatGPT Learn to Count Letters?

Javier Conde, Gonzalo Martínez, Pedro Reviriego, Zhen Gao, Shanshan Liu, Fabrizio Lombardi

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Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) struggle on simple tasks such as counting the number of occurrences of a letter in a word. In this paper, we investigate if ChatGPT can learn to count letters and propose an efficient solution.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
Computer (Volume: 58, Issue: 3, March 2025)
DOI
doi:10.1109/MC.2024.3488313
Subjects
cs.CLComputation and Language cs.AIArtificial Intelligence

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Linked by 1 identifiable commenter in 2 comments across 1 thread, from Nov 2025 to Nov 2025.

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Discussed in comments1 thread

  1. The Case That A.I. Is Thinking 2 comments
    • LLMs were not designed to count letters[0] since they work with tokens, so whatever trick they are now doing behind the scenes to handle this case, can probably only handle this particular case. I wonder if it's now included in the system prompt. I asked ChatGPT and it said it's…

      lossyalgoView on HNParent context

    • LLMs were not designed to count letters[0] since they work with tokens, so whatever trick they are now doing behind the scenes to handle this case, can probably only handle this particular case. I wonder if it's now included in the system prompt. I asked ChatGPT and it said it's…

      lossyalgoView on HNParent context

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