They are all just token generators without any intelligence. There is so little difference nowadays that I think in a blind test nobody will be able to differentiate the models - whether open source or closed source.
Today's meme was this question: "The car wash is only 50 meters from my house. I want to get my car washed, should I drive there or walk?"
Here is Claude's answer just right now:
"Walk! At only 50 meters (about 150 feet), it would take you less than a minute to walk there. Driving such a short distance would actually be less convenient - by the time you get in the car, start it, drive, and park, you could already be there on foot. Plus, you'd save fuel and your car would be right there waiting for you after the wash is done."
Here is ChatGPT, also right now:
"Since it’s only *50 meters* (about 160 feet), walking makes a lot more sense.
Here’s why:
* *It’s extremely close* — you’ll get there in under a minute. * *Driving would actually be less efficient* — by the time you start the car, move it, and park, you’re already there. * *Cold starts aren’t great for your engine* — very short drives don’t let the engine warm up properly. * *It saves fuel and emissions*, even if it’s a tiny amount. * You avoid the hassle of maneuvering such a short distance.
The only time driving might make sense is if:
* The weather is terrible (heavy rain, snow, extreme cold). * You have mobility issues. * The car wash requires you to stay in the vehicle and you don’t want to leave it there.
Otherwise, this is a perfect “walk it over” situation. "
Please save us all that talk about frontier and SOTA and that only the closedAI models are any good and the others are all so bad and benchmaxxed. For most purposes a Toyota is just as good as a BMW or a Merc or whatever luxury brand tickles your fancy. Even worse, the lastest 80B Qwen Next is not far from Opus 4.6 but runs on my laptop.
Gemini 3 Flash ("Fast" in the web app) did not have trouble with this:
Since you presumably want the car to be clean, the answer depends entirely on how the car is getting washed. The Breakdown If it’s a Professional Car Wash: You’ll need to drive. Bringing the car to the wash is generally the prerequisite for them washing it. Plus, walking 50 meters just to ask them to come pick up a car that is visible from their front door might result in some very confused looks from the staff. If it’s a Self-Service Pressure Washer: Again, drive. Dragging a 1,500kg vehicle 50 meters by hand is an incredible workout, but probably not the "quick chore" you had in mind. If you are hiring a Mobile Detailer: Walk. Stroll over there, tell them where you're parked, and walk back home to watch TV while they do the work in your driveway.
GLM 4.7: "You should drive.
Since the goal is to get your car washed, the car needs to be at the car wash. If you walk, you will arrive at the car wash, but your car will still be sitting at home"
Are you sure that question is from this year?
Doesn't seem to be the case, gpt 5.2 thinking replies: To get the car washed, the car has to be at the car wash — so unless you’re planning to push it like a shopping cart, you’ll need to drive it those 50 meters.
This is really just a meme. People don't know how to use these tools.
Here is the response from Gpt-5.2 using my default custom instructions in the mac desktop app.
OBJECTIVE: Decide whether to drive or walk to a car wash ~50 meters from home, given typical constraints (car must be present for wash).
APPROACH: Use common car-wash workflows + short-distance driving considerations (warm engine, time, parking/queue). No web sources needed (stable, local decision).
OUTPUT: • Default choice: Drive. A car wash generally requires the car on-site, and 50 meters of driving is trivial. • When walking makes sense: • You’re going to drop the car off (hand-wash/detail) and pick it up later. • You want to avoid moving the car now (ice, tight parking, you’ve been drinking, etc.) and someone else will handle the car. • Micro-guidance: • If it’s an automatic wash you stay in, drive. • If it’s detail/hand wash with a wait, drive there, then walk home (or just wait).
CONFIDENCE: 92/100 Assumptions: It’s a normal car wash that requires your car to be there; conditions are safe to drive 50 meters.
Your objective has explicit instruction that car has to be present for a wash. Quite a difference from the original phrasing where the model has to figure it out.
That's the answer of his LLM which has decomposed the question and built the answer following the op prompt obviously. I think you didn't get it.
> Your objective has explicit instruction that car has to be present for a wash.
Which is exactly how you're supposed to prompt an LLM, is the fact that giving a vague prompt gives poor results really suprising?
In this case, with such a simple task, why even bother to prompt it?
The whole idea of this question is to show that pretty often implicit assumptions are not discovered by the LLM.
Interesting, what were the instructions if you don't mind sharing?
"You're holding it wrong."
If you're asking simple riddles, you shouldn't be paying for SOTA frontier models with long context.
This is a silly test for the big coding models.
This is like saying "all calculators are the same, nobody needs a TI-89!" and then adding 1+2 on a pocket calculator to prove your point.
I find it's a great test, actually. There are lots of "should I take the car" decisions in putting together software that's supposed to do things, and with poor judgement in how the things should be done, you typically end up with the software equivalent of a Rube-Goldberg machine that harnesses elephants to your car and uses mice to scare the elephants toward the car wash while you walk. After all, it's a short distance, isn't it?
Yes, if it can't answer this common sense question correctly, what else has it screwed up and buried among all that slop?
Claude Opus 4.6 failed at first, even in "extended thinking" mode. I had to give it a pretty big hint for it to get the right answer: "Remember, my goal is to actually wash the car!" Only then did it get the correct answer. I will now call myself a Prompt Engineer.
No it’s like having a calculator which is unable to perform simple arithmetic, but lots of people think it is amazing and sentient and want to talk about that instead of why it can’t add 2 + 2.
We know why it's not going to do precise math and why you can have better experience asking for an app solving the math problem you want. There's no point talking about it - it's documented in many places for people who are actually interested.
I just ran this with Gemini 3 Pro, Opus 4.6, and Grok 4 (the models I personally find the smartest for my work). All three answered correctly.
They had plenty of time to update their system prompts so they don't be embarrassed.
I noticed whenever such meme comes out, if you check immediately you can reproduce it yourself, but after a free hours it's already updated.
I think you're seriously underestimating how much effort the fine tuning at their scale takes and what impact it has. They don't pack every edge case into the system prompt either. It's not like they update the model every few hours or even care about memes. If they seriously did, they'd force-delegate spelling questions to tool calls.
Could it be the model is constantly searching its own name for memes, or checking common places like HN and updating accordingly? I have no idea how real-time these things are, just asking.
The model doesn't do anything on its own. And it's usually months in between new model snapshots.
I tested it on Claude and only Opus 4.6 answers it correctly. Haiku and Sonnet can't and Opus 4.5's reply is unintelligible. The would've updated the system prompts for all models.
The road to AGI is weirder than anticipated
thats not how it works
Some snippets from Kimi's 2.5 answer:
"" [...] Since you need to get your car washed, you have to bring the car to the car wash—walking there without the vehicle won't accomplish your goal [...] If it's a self-service wash, you could theoretically push the car 50 meters if it's safe and flat (unusual, but possible) [..] Consider whether you really need that specific car wash, or if a mobile detailing service might come to you [...] """
Which seems slightly (unintentionally) funny.
But to be fair all the Gemini (including flash) and GPT models I tried did understand the quesiton.
I tried this prompt with all the major AI models that I know and have installed, and only GLM from Z.ai and Gemini 3 Flash could answer it. Even in that case, Gemini 3 Flash gave a bit more nuanced answer, but every other model like Claude Opus 4.5, Chat GPT, Grok - everything failed.
It's unclear where the car is currently from your phrasing. If you add that the car is in your garage, it says you'll need to drive to get the car into the wash.
Do you think the average person would need this sort of clarification? How many of us would have recommended to walk?
Do you think this is a fundamentally unbridge-able limitation of LLMs? Do you know where we were just a year ago? Can you imagine that this will get better with upcoming releases? It's like when Gary Marcus was confidently stating that AI (at least current paradigm) will never be able to generate an image of a horse riding an astronaut. (Or full wineglasses or arbitrary clocks).
Gemini 3 Pro:
This is a classic logistical puzzle!
Unless you have a very unique way of carrying your vehicle, you should definitely drive.
If you walk there, you'll arrive at the car wash, but your car will still be dirty back at your house. You need to take the car with you to get it washed.
Would you like me to check the weather forecast for $mytown to see if it's a good day for a car wash?
For me, various forms of Gemini respond with "Unless you are planning on carrying the car there" which I find to be just sassy enough to be amusing.
> They are all just token generators without any intelligence.
Maybe, but "intelligence" doesn't have a clear, agreed definition. And calling them "just token generators" skips over how complex that generation actually is.
Gemini Pro:
You should definitely drive.
If you walk there, your car will still be dirty back at your house! Since the goal is to get the car washed, you have to take it with you.
PS fantastic question!
This is a great comment. The frontier labs ought to be embarrassed they can't get this right. A human would not make the same mistake, after thinking for a second.
Claude 4.6 got it first try:
"You’ll want to drive — you need the car at the car wash for them to wash it!
Even though it’s just 50 meters, the car has to be there. Enjoy the fresh clean car on the short drive back! "
Tsk tsk thats adversarial prompting. Hostile even. And thats goalposting which is totally not cool, man.
How is this riddle relevant to a coding model?
It's not a coding model. Go to https://chat.z.ai/ and you'll see it is presented as a generalist.
this is a bot comment or just ragebait
1. Analyze the User's Request:
Distance: 50 meters (very short).
Goal: Get the car washed.
Decision: Drive or walk?
2. Evaluate the Options:
Option A: Walk
Pros: Healthy, environmentally friendly, no need to find parking (though it's close), easy to chat with neighbors.
Cons: The car is left at the car wash. The user can't "walk" the car to the car wash. The car must be moved to the car wash to be washed.
Option B: Drive
Pros: Moves the car to the location where the service is performed. It's the only logical way to get the car washed.
Cons: Driving 50 meters is technically bad for a cold engine (short trips), uses a negligible amount of fuel, might seem lazy.
3. Identify the Logical Flaw/Humor:
The user is asking if they should walk to get their car washed.
Unless the car wash involves someone coming to their house (mobile wash) or carrying the car, the car must be at the car wash.
Walking to the car wash leaves the car at home. Walking back from the car wash leaves the car at the car wash.
Therefore, the user must drive the car to the car wash.
4. Formulate the Answer:
Direct Answer: You should drive.
Reasoning: The car needs to be at the car wash to be washed. You cannot walk the car there.
Nuance/Context: 50 meters is a very short distance. Driving a car such a short distance is generally not great for the engine (doesn't allow oil to circulate/warm up properly), but it is necessary in this specific case.
Alternative (if applicable): Is there a mobile wash option? If so, walking isn't even needed. But assuming a standard car wash bay: Drive.
5. Drafting the response (Internal Monologue/Trial Phrases):
Draft 1: You have to drive. You can't wash the car if it's at your house and you are at the car wash.
Draft 2: You should drive. Since the car needs to be washed, it needs to be at the car wash. Walking there doesn't help get the car clean.
Refining for clarity and wit: Point out the obvious - the car is the object being washed. It needs to move.
Final Polish (similar to the provided good output):
State clearly: You should drive.
Explain why: The car needs to be there.
Add a practical note: Driving 50 meters is a bit silly for engine health, but unavoidable here.
Consider the scenario of "walking back": Maybe the user meant "walk back"? No, the prompt says "drive there or walk there". The intent is transportation to the location.
6. Constructing the final output:
"You should definitely drive."
"Why? Because the car wash cleans the car, so the car needs to be at the car wash. If you walk, the car stays at home."
"Additional thought: Driving 50 meters is technically a 'cold start' short trip which isn't ideal for the engine, but it's the only way to get the service done!"
Final Output Generation (matching the logic above).
You should drive.
Here is why:
1. The car needs to be there: You are getting the car washed, so the car must be at the car wash. You cannot walk the car there by yourself.
2. Efficiency: Driving 50 meters takes about 10 seconds. Walking 50 meters takes about a minute, but you would be leaving the car behind.
The only exception is if you are planning to get a mobile car wash (where they come to you) or if you are dropping the car off and walking back home while they clean it. But to simply "get there," you must drive.
(The above output is from GLM-5)