I've several times talked to my staff about 'bugs' related to accuracy vs precision.

Today (2024.09.24) I asked a very popular (and generally useful) AI:

What is 45 Fahrenheit in Celsius? The AI Replied: "45 Fahrenheit = -45.5555556° Celsius. Can I help you with any temperature conversions?"

It should have said ... Can I help you with any other works of fiction?

The CORRECT answer is in the range of +7C based on a quick in my head calculation, in retrospect it took me longer to ask GERALD the question than it took to just do the calculation in my head - and my answer is correct (enough).

But perhaps more important, this is the best example ever about the difference between

• Accuracy (the answer had NO accuracy)

and

• Precision (the answer had 9 digits of precision)

For a real world application of Accuracy vs Precision in CMMS See our GIS/Mapping Latitude resolution document: GIS Resolution

"Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise." John W. Tukey