AI search answers half of the question

I feel that generally Logos AI search does good job. I am still learning how to make suitable questions. Surprisingly, this time the smart search simply ignored the first half of the question. I just wanted to check these city names because I often confuse them.

Find more posts tagged with

Features

Desktop App

Comments

Roger Pitot

I have found that when I get an unsatisfactory answer, changing the wording slightly often solves the issue.

I tried "Is Gezer the same as Gerar" and got what I believe you were looking for :

Gezer and Gerar are two distinct locations in ancient Canaan. Gezer is strategically located on the road from Jerusalem to Joppa, on the northernmost ridge of the Shephelah overlooking the Ayyalon valley, while Gerar is a town in the western Negeb, used as a geographical landmark for the southern border of Canaan and associated with Gaza. Gerar is notably mentioned in the biblical narratives of Abraham and Isaac, who settled there at the invitation of King Abimelech. Gerar is most likely identified with Tel Haror, located 25 Roman miles south of Eleutheropolis. In contrast, Gezer was a chief city of pre-Roman Palestine that became an Israelite possession when an Egyptian pharaoh gave it to his daughter upon her marriage to Solomon, who then rebuilt the city and its defenses. While both were important ancient sites, they are separate locations with distinct historical significance.

Francis

"In the Bible" is not a very clear parameter to your search. In a way, the answer you got could be conceived as describing the two towns that are in the Bible (as opposed to the sites today). Perhaps this is how your query was understood. It looks like you may have meant something like what does the Bible say about… but I am not even completely sure if that's what you meant because to me, your query is not specific enough. Do you want to try with more specific wording to see if the results are the same or better?

Paul Gibson

I don't use Logos Smart Searches much, but I do use several of the free commercial AIs frequently (for non-Biblical queries). I've found using plain language questions, like you'd ask a person, gets better results than just putting in keywords; I even habitually use proper case and punctuation. Adding detail about what you want helps quite a bit. Today I was trying to decide if I wanted to buy a Logos resource:

Review the purpose, content, theology, type, depth, audience, popularity, and similar resources of The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible: One-Volume Edition.

I asked this on ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, I ask.ai and You.com. After looking at the Logos website and these AIs,I decided not to buy it.

Veli Voipio

Now I tried this

and in Copilot

Copilot also allows for the metric system 😯

Francis

Beware of copilot's "data" though. I find it regularly errs. Yesterday, I asked about a Greek term found in two ancient sources and it affirmed that it was not used in them. When I finally managed to find the Greek text, I did find the term. Then copilot said "you're right, blah blah blah." Logos AI is more reliable in drawing data directly from resources. Yet this comes at the cost of less flexibility in "thinking" about questions. Put differently, they are usually more accurate (well, as accurate as the sources are) but less interesting and comprehensive. I wished the Logos smart search allowed refining queries. On the other hand, since it costs credits for every question, not sure how practical this would be.