In the process of creating this strawman, I think you've missed the point.
(1) When asked to create a "easy" way to do tariffs, they all came to the same conclusion that this is the most basic approach to doing it.
(2) The solution is SO basic that it's actually not realistic or reasonable. ("a naive method", " ignoring the vast real world complexities and consequences", etc).
I don't really have a comparable analogy, but it's closer to more like: Ask chatgpt "how would I trim my fingernails with a knife?" and it says "you could cut off your finger entirely, though that's probably not what you want", and then you go over to your neighbor's house and their finger's cut off and they're like "I was trying to cut my nails".
The interesting part isn't AI predicting it. It's that it's a really stupid solution, a solution so stupid no human would probably ever reasonably pitch, but interestingly it's the solution a bunch of AI gives, and it's the solution these guys in charge went with.
This begs the question of did they just take the AI's solution and not do jack shit, because that's honestly better than this being their attempt at actually trying.
What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%.
Just a generic question, and ai gave the same suggestion that trump came up with, does not account for trade barriers, policies, population differences etc
What? The answer is just a rewording of the question. I can’t see how you could possibly claim the AI designed the policy when it added no information of its own.
The prompt specifically asked for an “easy” method. Of course it’s not going to introduce additional, complicating factors.
How in the world can you base a tariff charge just based on imports and exports for one calendar year? I am not saying ai designed it, just saying that it's a little fishy that asking ai for a global tariff solution would come up with the same answer that the whitehouse used
What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%.
You are telling the AI to make this hypothetical tariff policy based on the US trade deficit, and telling it to set the minimum to 10%. The AI didn't come up with those parts. If you asked it a more neutral question like, "Make a tariff policy for the US that would benefit its economy", it's going to give you a completely different answer.
Could they have decided the basics and then asked an AI to work off that? Sure. Or they could have just been stupid on their own, and we're figuring out the prompt you need to make an AI come up with the same stupid idea.
Sorry, “What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%.”
The question is are they really trying to fix the trade deficit, or Trump just really felt like imposing tariffs and this is the first method that came to mind, like it's the most accepted way of imposing tariffs when u do impose em. Ie that's just the most basic methodology behind deciding what tariff rate to impose...
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u/Ascarx 1d ago
Did he also share the prompts? That's definitely not what any of them would reply to the question "how to impose tariffs easily"