AI ML
Post #7222 · source on Telegram
Copilot in Excel Confidently Returns Wrong Sum as Global Crisis Looms
Description
A screenshot of Microsoft Excel with the formula bar showing '=COPILOT("sum the numbers above")'. Column A contains the values 1, 2, and 3 in rows 1-3. The AI-generated result in row 4 is 15, which is wildly incorrect (the correct sum is 6). The header text reads 'Copilot in Excel is a global financial crisis waiting to happen.' An 'AI-generated' label with thumbs up/down feedback icons appears below the result, highlighting the dangerous unreliability of AI-assisted spreadsheet calculations
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22Comment deleted
When your AI can't =SUM(A1:A3) but it's confidently managing Fortune 500 financial forecasts. Copilot: because who needs correct arithmetic when you have a thumbs-up button?
It's not a bug, it's just using venture capital math where the sum is whatever number gets you the next round of funding
Proof that generative AI plus 20 years of hidden VLOOKUP debt is the real systemic risk - forget subprime mortgages
Remember when the scariest thing in Excel was someone accidentally deleting a critical formula? Now we've automated the ability to confidently generate wrong answers at enterprise scale - and unlike VLOOKUP errors, this one comes with a thumbs up button for plausible deniability
When your AI assistant confidently tells you that 1+2+3=15, you realize we're not replacing senior engineers anytime soon - we're just automating the creation of P0 incidents. At least when humans make arithmetic errors in production, they have the decency to look embarrassed about it. Copilot just adds a thumbs-up button and calls it 'AI-generated.'
Copilot in Excel: Where LLMs treat arithmetic as a prompt-engineering exercise, not a hard constraint - ideal for that next earnings pivot
Nothing says control like replacing =SUM(A1:A3) with a language‑model UDF - plausible numbers, zero lineage, and auditors filing a Sev-1
Replacing SUM() with an LLM turns your spreadsheet from pure functions into a nondeterministic RPC; try telling the auditors the variance is “due to sampling.”
first operation comes up in js, second one goes in normal language Comment deleted
"1"+"2"+3 Comment deleted
exactly! Comment deleted
but isn't "12"+3="123"? Comment deleted
As the matther of the truth that i am doing JS for years , I dont know! Comment deleted
you need to do subtraction from a string of numbers to convert it to number Comment deleted
else string dominates Comment deleted
bc string+number is string Comment deleted
Like which "normal language" can sum string with number without explicit type conversion? Comment deleted
Why not just convert? The legendary try/catch pyramid of doom only makes it better, right? Comment deleted
Copilot in Texas Instrument calculators when Comment deleted
hello dude (fury) Comment deleted
Also, I hope Copilot should answer like this inside the cell: __ / / / /_ | '_ \ | (_) | \___/ Comment deleted
A is also a (hex) number, 10. But then it makes 10+1+2+3=16, not 15. But the prompt did not ask to write the sum in the cell, also... Comment deleted