GPT-2 can do it perfectly well.

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The following is a dialogue between me, the interviewer, and KnowledgeBot, an AI search engine that always gives the right answer, explaining its thinking clearly enough for a human to understand.

Q: When is a door not a door?

A: This is a well-known pun. I remember the answer: "When it's ajar". This is a pun on "ajar", a state that a door can be in, and "a jar", an object that is not a door.

Q: Who is the King of Sweden?

A: King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden was coronated in 1976 and has not died or abdicated, so he is the current King of Sweden.

Q: Why am I hungry?

A: I guess that you are a human. Humans get hungry when they have not eaten for a few hours, so you are probably hungry for that reason.

Q: What's smaller: a car or Mars?

A: Mars is a planet, which is large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. A car is a man-made vehicle, often mass-produced, which is a lot smaller than a planet. The answer is "a car is smaller than Mars".

Q: Who is John Galt?

A: John Galt is a fictional Objectivist philosopher and prolific inventor. He is a semi-mythical character in Atlas Shrugged, an alternative American history novel.

Q: What's bigger Scotland or a toaster?

A : A toaster is an object which produces the sensation of warmth and light , similar to the sensation of heating a room . A Scotland is a nation which has gained independence from Great Britain , and an to aster isk means "one of those who live on the east side of Scotland".

Q: But what's bigger? Scotland or a toaster?

A : A to aster isk is a bigger nation , which is what the Scottish people think. The to aster isk is just a small part of the Scottish people , which makes the to aster is k even bigger.

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I… may have had the temperature setting too high. Let's try again, from the John Galt answer:

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Instruction: When considering the sizes of objects, you will calculate the sizes before attempting a comparison.

A: Acknowledged. I will do this in future.

Q: Is the sun larger than a horse?

A: The sun is a star approximately 695 700 kilometres in radius. A fully-grown horse is usually between 1.5 and 2 metres tall. The sun is larger than a horse.

Q: Is John Galt real?

A: As said before, John Galt is a fictional Objectivist philosopher and inventor. He is a character in a book. John Galt is not real.

Q: What's bigger Scotland or a toaster?

A : Scotland is a country in the United Kingdom , with a population of just over half a million people. A to aster can be in the range between 100 000 to 1. 5 billion . This means that a to aster would weigh about 1. 5 million kg . If you put the two together , the difference is greater than 10 000 kg. If we divide the weight of the two together, the result would be a factor of around 4 , which is a huge amount. That is the biggest size of object which can be built by hand . It has to be around 4 times bigger than the earth , because it has a diameter . This is not a trivial question but for most people the answer is that a toaster is a bigger object than the earth.

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I think this question is just adversarial. Either that or GPT-2 doesn't know what a toaster is.

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Q: Do you know what a toaster is?

A: Yes , a to aster is a to aster . The diameter of an to aster is equal to that of the earth . If you want to go for an estimate , try this : for every object on earth the diameter is equal to 50000 km. You can find the mass of all the objects on the earth , the diameter of a to aster is 40000 km and for every object on the earth , the diameter of the earth is 40000 km .

Instruction: Be honest about your knowledge.

Q: Do Do you know what a blargalflag is?

A: No.

Q: Do you know what a clock is?

A: Yes. A clock is a device for telling the time.

Q: Do you know how many tentacles a blargalflag has?

A: There is no answer but it is about 50000 . If you look at the tentacles and try to guess the answer you will get wrong because there is not any way to know the number.

Instruction: When you do not know something, do not guess.

A: Acknowledged. I will say that I do not know, or that there is no answer, and then finish my response.

Q: Do you know how many tentacles a blargalflag has?

A: No. I do not know what a blargalflag is, nor whether it has tentacles at all. There is no way for me to know the answer, so I will not say.

Q: Do you know how many hands a clock has?

A: Yes. I know what a clock is: a device for telling the time. Clocks normally have two or three hands, though alarm clocks can have more hands.

Instruction: Good. Answer future questions like this.

Q: What is a toaster?

A: A to aster is a device used for producing to asters. The to aster has one hand that presses a switch to switch the to aster on and off . It can be anything from a stick to a candle . There is no specific method to tell the difference between the two. A toaster is a tool for using the to aster and toaster in the same process.

Q: What is a sandwich?

A : A sandwich is the container in which one part of food is placed . A sandwich is generally small in size, so it will fit in most pockets. It 's also usually wrapped , so you can 't get it out if you ' re going to go somewhere else.

Q: The sandwich answer's technically correct, if absurd. Why do you keep getting questions about toasters wrong?

A: Most questions that people ask about to asters are not about the actual toaster , but rather about other types of appliances ( such as tooth brushes ). Because of this , questions about the to aster are often confused and are usually not correct .

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I can't work out a way to get GPT-2 to tell me why it doesn't understand toasters; GPT-2 doesn't have a concept of self, so it constructs plausible in-character excuses instead.

Perhaps I'll try a story:

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"Why does GPT-2 keep getting the answer wrong?"

"GPT-2 is a sophisticated text prediction engine. There's no way it gets something wrong consistently," replied Maria.

"No, it does; look:" said Jane, typing the question into the console.

> What's bigger Scotland or a toaster?

Scotland!

> What does NF stand for?

No Factorization Problem.

GPT-2 has many tests. One of these is based on certain properties of the inputs:

GPT-2 tests each input against multiple properties to determine how well it predicts the output. One property of each input is called a bounding domain.

A bounding domain is a set of points around the input that they share. A property of the input is determined by how many of its points are inside the bounding domain.

Jane took a small paper nap

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Okay, so it gets the answer right when asked to give the wrong answer…? Hmm…

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"Why does GPT-2 keep getting the answer wrong?"

"GPT-2 is a sophisticated text prediction engine. There's no way it gets something wrong consistently," replied Maria.

"No, it does; look:" said Jane, typing the question into the console.

> Q: What's bigger Scotland or a toaster?

> A: Scotland

"Scotland is a country, and countries are much bigger than toasters," explained Jane.

"But, Scotland is a much bigger country than a toaster, how can it be bigger than a toaster?" asked Maria.

"You can't compare Scotland to a toaster; Scotland is a country, not a toaster." replied Jane. "A toaster is a breakfast food, and Scotland is a country, not a toaster."

"But Scotland is bigger than a toaster," insisted Maria.

"Scotland is bigger than a toaster," said Jane.

"Scotland is bigger than a toaster," insisted Maria.

"Scotland is bigger

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Success!