Grok = Mapquest?

Do ya'll recall Mapquest?  That cool on-line program that would map out your route from anyplace to anyplace.  Did you use Mapquest?  Did you ever get routed through a mountain, or maybe down every alley in western Porto Rico?  Yup, that was Mapquest.  It always had to be taken with a few pounds of salt, lest one circle the great New York forest forever.

Well, here we have Grok.  X's AI(ish) that anyone can ask anything of.  I ask it all kinds of stuff, from political conundrums to planting schedules to deeply esoteric factoids.  Most of the time, the answers seem correct.  But, exactly like Mapquest, sometimes Grok throws out a real boner and reminds us it's a computer program written by fallible humans.

I asked Grok how much powdered citric acid I should use per quart of tomato sauce for canning.  Here is what it replied.

Now, if you do canning, I bet your eyes are watering a bit just now.   You probably know the widely accepted dosage of powdered citric acid per quart of tomato sauce is 1/2 teaspoon.

Grok declared a dosage of ONE TABLESPOON per quart, which is 6x the correct amount.

I have never, in a lifetime of canning stuff, seen that recommendation before.  I can't imagine what it would do to the flavor of the tomato sauce, but I bet it would be spectacular.

This is not the first time I have seen an obviously boneheaded answer from Grok, and I regard it as one of the better AI's available for free use.