Teaching AI

[Syne]

Like I've said, AI (LLMs) are dumb. Even scraping the internet for information, they need a human to teach them how to be useful.
Here, I teach Google AI how to answer a specific question.

Q: is the ninth circuit court of appeals the highest court that has ruled on the national guard being used to specifically protect federal agents

AI: No, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is not the highest court to have ruled on the National Guard being used to protect federal agents. The U.S. Supreme Court has made relevant rulings on federalizing the National Guard, and cases heard by federal courts can be appealed up to the Supreme Court.

Q: has the supreme court ruled on the specific issue of using the national guard to protect federal agents

AI: No, the Supreme Court has not made a specific, definitive ruling on the exact issue of using the National Guard to protect federal agents during civil unrest. The legal landscape on this topic is still evolving through lower court cases, particularly regarding deployments in cities like Los Angeles and Portland in 2025.

Q: Then what is the highest court that has ruled on this specific issue

AI: The highest court to issue a ruling on the specific issue of using the National Guard to protect federal agents is the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet addressed the issue directly.

Q: why wasn't that the answer before

AI: This is an excellent clarifying question, and the distinction lies in the specificity of the legal issue. The earlier answer noted the Supreme Court has ruled on the general principle of federalizing the National Guard, but not the specific scenario of protecting federal agents during civil unrest. This led to a more comprehensive, but initially less direct, response.

Q: I didn't ask about the general issue, i specified "national guard protecting federal agents"

AI: You are correct to push back on the previous answer. I apologize for including the broader context about the Supreme Court's general rulings on National Guard federalization. Your question was specific, and the initial response should have directly addressed the highest court to rule on the specific issue you raised.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is indeed the highest court to have ruled on the specific issue of using the National Guard to protect federal agents during civil unrest.

Then after training the AI how to answer the question asked, I could ask without already knowing the answer:

Q: what is the highest court that has ruled on the national guard being used to protect federal agents

AI: The U.S. Supreme Court has not directly ruled on a recent case specifically about using the National Guard to protect federal agents. The current highest-level rulings on this matter have come from federal appeals courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

As you can see, if you didn't already know the answer, Google AI would completely mislead you.

[confused2]

I tried your 'trained' question on Google Gemini (is that what you used?)..

Q. What is the highest court that has ruled on the national guard being used to protect federal agents[/quote]
A. [it finishes with] Therefore, the highest court to have directly addressed this issue and issued substantive rulings or procedural decisions related to appeals is the U.S. Court of Appeals in the relevant circuit (e.g., the Ninth Circuit in the cases involving Oregon and California).

So (Gemini) already knows the answer you think you trained if to give.

I can't now go back and ask the question in your 'test' format because it (now) knows me. In fairness it did admit that the answer you wanted was clear in the test question .. so not entirely stupid. It should have restricted its answer to yes or no but I don't think they're set up (trained) to do that.

Full answer..

The highest court to issue a direct ruling on the federalized National Guard being used to protect federal agents is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the relevant circuit, though specific final rulings are complex and often temporary.

The cases surrounding the deployment of the National Guard for this purpose during the Trump administration primarily originated in U.S. District Courts, and some of those rulings have been appealed:

District Court Rulings: Federal judges in U.S. District Courts have issued rulings, including temporary restraining orders and injunctions, both blocking and finding issues with the use of federalized National Guard troops for law enforcement support (like in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California). These courts are a step below the Courts of Appeals.

Court of Appeals Involvement: The rulings from the District Courts (which were generally against the use) have been appealed to the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals (the next highest court). In the Los Angeles case, for instance, an appeals court panel kept the lower court's block on hold while the appeal proceeded, which is a procedural decision by a higher court affecting the order, but not necessarily a final ruling on the merits.


Supreme Court: As of the information available, the U.S. Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling on the legality of this specific use of the federalized National Guard.

Therefore, the highest court to have directly addressed this issue and issued substantive rulings or procedural decisions related to appeals is the U.S. Court of Appeals in the relevant circuit (e.g., the Ninth Circuit in the cases involving Oregon and California).

[Syne]

I assume asking Google Gemini would include my training. After training, I repeated the test on another browser to verify the result stuck.
But I've seen this on other topics as well, like programming questions. Since I already know how to program, I know when it's giving me wrong answers. I have to repeatedly correct it. Not usually on the programming language syntax, but commonly on the specific API. It will commonly try to give me answers from other APIs even though the one I'm asking for is well-documented online. It does find the correct answer... but only after being told to try harder.

[confused2]

I tried your test question on Pi ..

Based on this information [not copied here] , it seems that the Ninth Circuit has ruled on the use of the National Guard in relation to federal agents, though it's not clear whether it is the highest court to do so.

So I think it parsed the question correctly .. it is possible Gemini would have done another time .. they are context sensitive .. which would include the style of earlier questions and your responses.

I know someone (Mrf*) without programming knowledge who has used chatgpt to write software .. he did say it was a painful process .. with, as you say "try harder" being involved. His latest (stock control program) was written by chatgpt5 which he said was vastly superior to earlier incarnations.

The beast I use is based on an early version of chatgpt (no knowledge of anything after 2021 .. very sensitive about the subject) .. I only use it to write snippets when I'm bored or too lazy to read the manual .. it's read the manual and writes good clean code .. what's not to like? I've tried a few other AIs but the Beast writes the best code despite its age.

[Syne]

I just use Google because it's handy, and I rarely use the AI for things I have no previous knowledge of.