This briefing document summarises the key findings and implications of the research paper "A Showdown of ChatGPT vs DeepSeek in Solving Programming Tasks" by Shakya et al. The study investigates the capabilities of two leading Large Language Models (LLMs), ChatGPT o3-mini and DeepSeek-R1, in solving competitive programming problems from Codeforces. The evaluation focuses on the accuracy of solutions, memory efficiency, and runtime performance across easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels.

Study Limitations:

The study acknowledges several limitations:

Single-shot prompting: The lack of follow-up prompts might have limited the refinement of generated outputs, as "LLM-assisted programming requires human intervention to ensure correctness".

Model versions: The study used ChatGPT o3-mini but not the more programming-focused DeepSeek-Coder, which "could have demonstrated better results than the R1".

Limited task set: The use of only 29 programming tasks might limit the generalisability of the results.

Single programming language: Focusing solely on C++ might limit the applicability across different coding environments.

Prompt formulation: While a consistent prompt was used, exploring different prompts could yield further insights.

The authors suggest that future research should address these limitations by using more diverse problem sets, exploring multiple programming languages, testing different prompting strategies, and comparing more recent versions of these and other LLMs.

Key Takeaways:

ChatGPT o3-mini demonstrates superior performance in solving medium-difficulty competitive programming tasks compared to DeepSeek-R1 in a zero-shot setting.

Both models struggle significantly with hard programming tasks, indicating the current limitations of LLMs in handling high-complexity problems without further human guidance or advanced prompting techniques.

ChatGPT generally exhibits better runtime performance, while DeepSeek sometimes shows lower memory consumption, though often at the cost of correctness.

The study highlights the ongoing need for human intervention and advanced prompting strategies to effectively utilise LLMs for solving programming tasks, particularly those beyond the easy difficulty level.

Future research should explore the impact of different prompting techniques, model versions (like DeepSeek-Coder), a wider range of tasks and programming languages, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of LLM capabilities in code generation.

This paper presents components of an AI-assisted academic writing system focused on citation recommendation and introduction generation. The authors argue that scientific writing is a crucial but challenging skill, particularly for non-native English speakers and students. They explore how AI can augment the writing process by providing relevant citation suggestions based on document context and by automatically generating structured introductions that contextualise research within existing literature. The paper includes quantitative evaluations of their system's components and qualitative research into how researchers currently incorporate citations into their workflows, revealing a demand for precise and effective AI writing assistance.

This paper introduces a new metric, the "50%-task-completion time horizon," to quantify AI capabilities by relating AI performance on tasks to the typical time humans take to complete them. The study timed domain-expert humans on a diverse set of research and software engineering tasks (RE-Bench, HCAST, and a new suite called SWAA) and evaluated the performance of 13 frontier AI models (2019-2025) on these tasks. The key finding is that the 50% time horizon of frontier AI models has been doubling approximately every seven months since 2019, potentially accelerating in 2024. Extrapolation of this trend suggests that within five years, AI systems may be capable of automating many software tasks currently taking humans a month. The paper discusses the methodology, limitations, and implications of these findings, particularly for AI safety and governance.

This paper provides a compelling new way to measure and track the progress of AI capabilities by focusing on the time horizon for task completion. The observed exponential growth, particularly the potential acceleration in recent years, has significant implications for the future of automation and AI safety. While acknowledging the limitations of current benchmarks and the challenges of extrapolating these trends to real-world scenarios, the findings suggest a rapid advancement towards AI systems capable of tackling increasingly complex and time-consuming tasks. Continued research and development of more realistic benchmarks will be crucial for accurately forecasting AI capabilities and ensuring responsible AI governance

Imagine you're getting emails or messages on the internet. Some of these messages might be from people trying to trick you - like strangers offering candy. But now, there's something new happening:

Smart Computers Making Tricky Messages:

New computer programs (called LLMs) can write very convincing messages

These messages might look like they're from someone you know

It's getting harder for safety programs to spot these tricks

Safety Programs Need Help:

Think of safety programs like security guards at school

The old security guards are having trouble spotting the new tricks

Scientists are teaching them new ways to keep us safe!

How We Can Stay Safe:

Always be careful with messages from people you don't know

Even if a message looks real, check with your parents or teachers

Remember: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

The Good News:

Scientists are using the same smart computers to make better safety tools

They're teaching computers to spot these tricky messages

It's like training super-smart guard dogs to protect us!

The most important thing to remember is:

Always talk to a grown-up you trust before clicking on links in emails

Never share personal information online

If you're not sure about something, it's better to ask for help!

Just like how you look both ways before crossing the street, it's important to be careful and smart when using the internet!

Imagine you're trying to draw a picture, but instead of using crayons, you're using a special computer program. This program is called ComfyGI, and it's like having a super-smart art assistant!

Here's what makes it special:

Making Pictures Better Automatically:

Instead of spending lots of time trying to get your picture perfect

ComfyGI helps find the best way to make the picture you want

It's like having a friend who knows all the best tricks to make art look amazing!

How It Works:

Think of it like playing a video game where you level up:

The computer tries different ways to make the picture

It keeps the ways that work better (like keeping the best cards in a card game)

It keeps trying until the picture looks just right!

Special Tools It Uses:

It can change different things to make the picture better:

Pick the best art-making program (like choosing the right paintbrush)

Change how detailed the picture is

Make the words that describe the picture better

Use a smart helper to write better descriptions

Why It's Cool:

Makes pictures that look way better than before

Saves lots of time (no more trying again and again!)

Almost everyone who tested it liked the pictures it made better

Think of ComfyGI like having a magical art assistant that knows exactly how to make your ideas come to life in a picture! It's like having an expert artist helping you, but it's all done by a smart computer.

Imagine you're trying to decide how to spend or save your pocket money. Sometimes, the way someone tells you about something can change how you feel about it - just like how a boring vegetable might sound tastier if it's described in a fun way! This is called the "framing effect."

Now, scientists are trying to teach a smart computer program (called ChatGPT) to make better decisions about money, especially when it comes to buying and selling gold. Here's what they did:

The Problem:

People (and computers) sometimes make quick decisions based on how information sounds

They might get too excited about good news or too worried about bad news

This can lead to not-so-smart choices with money

The Solution - A Special Three-Step Plan:

First: Sort the news into different groups (like sorting your toys into different boxes)

Second: Give each piece of news a score (like rating games out of 10)

Third: Think about it again carefully (like when your parents tell you to "think twice")

How It Works:

It's like having a super-smart friend who:

Doesn't get too excited by flashy news

Thinks about the long-term (not just right now)

Double-checks its decisions to make sure they're smart

The Results:

This new way of thinking helped the computer make better money decisions

It did better than just buying and keeping gold

It was smarter than simpler ways of making decisions

Think of it like teaching a computer to be a wise money manager - one that doesn't get tricked by how things sound and always takes time to think carefully before making decisions!

Imagine we're talking about making sure robots and smart computers (AI) are good helpers for everyone in the world. Here's what smart people are thinking about:

Making AI Be a Good Helper:

Like when you build with LEGO, we need to think carefully about how we build AI

We want AI to make good decisions and be able to explain why it made them

Just like we care about our planet, we need to make sure AI doesn't waste too much energy

How AI Affects People:

Some people worry AI might take away jobs from humans

We need to make sure AI is fair to everyone (like how teachers should treat all students fairly)

We need to protect people's secrets (like how you wouldn't want someone reading your diary)

Different Countries Working with AI:

Countries like the USA and China are in a friendly race to build the best AI

Some places have more tools to build AI than others (like how some schools might have more computers)

People want to work together to make AI helpful for everyone in the world

Cool Things Happening:

In Montreal (a city in Canada), lots of people are working together to build smart AI

People have special events called "hackathons" where they work together to solve problems with computers

Scientists are finding new ways to make AI better and safer

The big idea is that we want AI to be like a really good friend:

Helpful and kind to everyone

Honest about what it's doing

Careful with people's private information

Good for our planet

Just like how you have rules at home and school to help everyone get along, we need rules to make sure AI helps make the world better for everyone!

Imagine we're talking about making sure robots (or AI) are good friends that we can trust. Scientists are trying to figure out how to teach these AI helpers to be honest, fair, and kind - just like how your parents and teachers teach you good values!

Here's what the scientists are working on:

Making Trustworthy AI Friends:

They want to create AI that always tells the truth

These AI should be fair to everyone

They should be clear about what they're doing (no keeping secrets!)

Team of AI Helpers:

Instead of using just one AI, they're creating teams of AI

Each AI has a special job (like how different players in a sports team have different roles)

These AI work together and check each other's work (like how students might check each other's homework)

Teaching AI to Be Good:

Scientists are creating special rules and guidelines

It's like having a rulebook that helps the AI know what's right and wrong

They want to make sure the AI follows important rules, just like how we follow rules at school

Challenges They Face:

Sometimes it's hard to explain complicated rules to AI

They need to make sure the AI can work well with human programmers

They want to make sure the AI stays up-to-date with the newest rules

Think of it like training a super-smart robot pet:

You want it to be helpful and friendly

It needs to learn right from wrong

It should work well with other robot pets

Most importantly, it needs to be someone you can trust!

The scientists found out that when AI work as a team and talk to each other about what's right and wrong, they make better decisions - just like how you might make better decisions when you talk things through with your friends or family!

Imagine you have a super-smart computer friend called Hugging Face that helps you understand and work with words and languages. Here's what it can do:

Cleaning Up Text:

Just like how you clean up your room, Hugging Face helps clean up text

It removes messy stuff (like weird symbols or extra spaces)

It makes all the words neat and organized, like arranging your toys!

Understanding Words:

Hugging Face breaks down big sentences into smaller pieces (like breaking LEGO sets into individual blocks)

It understands different languages (like having a friend who can speak many languages!)

It can even learn new words it hasn't seen before

Cool Things It Can Do:

Read stories and tell you what they're about (like giving you a quick summary of a book)

Tell if someone is happy or sad from their writing (like understanding emoji meanings!)

Answer questions (like having a smart friend who helps with homework)

Translate languages (like having a universal translator from sci-fi movies!)

Write new text (like having a creative writing buddy)

Learning and Getting Better:

Just like how you learn new things at school, Hugging Face can learn to get better at specific tasks

It can practice with different types of writing (like sports news or science books)

The more it practices, the better it gets!

Sharing with Others:

Scientists and developers can share their trained Hugging Face models with others

It's like sharing your toys with friends, but with smart computer programs!

Everyone can work together to make these programs better

Think of Hugging Face as a friendly robot librarian who's really good at reading, writing, and understanding different languages. It helps people work with text in all sorts of fun and useful ways!

Imagine scientists are trying to create special computer friends (they call them "generative agents") that can act just like real people! Here's what they did:

Making Computer Friends:

The scientists talked to 1,000 real people for 2 hours each

They used these conversations to teach computers how to think and respond like those real people

It's kind of like making digital twins of real people!

How It Works:

Think of it like creating characters in a video game, but these characters:

Remember things from their conversations

Can think about things like real people

Can answer questions just like the real person would

Can make decisions like real people do

Testing the Computer Friends:

The scientists gave these computer friends different tests to see how well they could act like real people

They asked them questions about:

What they think about different things in life

Their personality

How they would share things with others

How they would make decisions

Why This is Cool:

Scientists can use these computer friends to:

Learn about how people behave

Test their ideas without bothering real people all the time

Understand how different people might react in different situations

Think of it like having a really smart toy that can pretend to be a real person - it remembers things, makes decisions, and acts just like the person it learned from! It's like having thousands of digital actors who can help scientists understand how people think and behave.

But remember - these are still just computer programs, not real people. The scientists are very careful to use this technology safely and protect the privacy of the real people they talked to.