Jiří Eischmann

1 month ago

Jiří Eischmann
1 month ago

Fun with #AI:
I have a spreadsheet containing assignees, with various values on each line. I needed to calculate the sum of certain values for one assignee. This would normally be a simple query in #LibreOffice, but let's try using AI instead. I uploaded the spreadsheet to #GoogleSheets and entered a simple prompt in #Gemini: 'Give me the sum of XY values for assignee "name"' No result.
So I tried a more algorithmic prompt: 'Go through each line, and if the value in column XX is "name", count the value in column XY to the sum, and give me the total sum for all lines'.
The result? 150.
That's nice, but the simple query in LibreOffice gave me 27, which was the correct answer.

No matter how much I try, Gemini is completely useless in Google Sheets.

This entry was edited (1 month ago)

in reply to Jiří Eischmann

xbezdick

in reply to Jiří Eischmann 1 month ago

if I have to use AI model it has to pass this simple prompt test for me:
0x39415000 bytes in GiB?

So far only few models like Qwen3 passed and they burn tokens on it like there is no tomorrow. How can you expect any reasonable code from a model if they can't answer this?

in reply to Jiří Eischmann

Stanislav Ochotnický

in reply to Jiří Eischmann 1 month ago

but wouldn't a more likely use case/usage actually be to ask it for formula or modifications to get that result instead asking for the result itself?

in reply to Stanislav Ochotnický

Jiří Eischmann

in reply to Stanislav Ochotnický 1 month ago

@drizzy what would be the value of the Gemini integration into Google Docs Google is trying to sell? It has access to the spreadsheet, it has access to the Sheets interface, why should it not give the results if it actually worked?

@Stanislav Ochotnický

in reply to Jiří Eischmann

Stanislav Ochotnický

in reply to Jiří Eischmann 1 month ago

wouldn't the value proposition be that it can help create formulas and modifying the sheets? What you tried seems as if instead of editor integrations to write code to generate Fibonacci numbers you'd use LLM to tell (guess) those numbers. Note that I use neither google sheets nor Gemini so making some non educated guesses here 😅

in reply to Stanislav Ochotnický

Jiří Eischmann

in reply to Stanislav Ochotnický 1 month ago

@drizzy What I expect from it is that it creates a fitting formula based on the prompt, run it and give me the result. It's also what the tool suggests it can do.
I also tried to go with what it suggested such as "Would you like me to generate a chart of story points by assignee?" Yes, do that. And the result is again completely wrong.
Not sure if it gets the formulas wrong and if it directly makes up the numbers. It isn't transparent. 🤷‍♂️

@Stanislav Ochotnický

in reply to Jiří Eischmann

dusoft

in reply to Jiří Eischmann 1 month ago

it's a large language model, not a math model. It's ok for categorization and text related tasks. I wouldn't use it for anything calculation related. Know your tools.
Edit: I have used it for creating complex formulas, where I didn't have time to go through documentation. It worked.

This entry was edited (1 month ago)

in reply to dusoft

Jiří Eischmann

in reply to dusoft 1 month ago

@dusoft I don't want it to do the calculations. I want it to come up with a fitting formula based on the prompt and use the integration to run it using standard Google Sheets tooling. It's also what the AI tool pretends it can do.

@dusoft