Mass embarrassment of AI models: Here’s what the ‘car wash test’ is

That’s why the ‘car wash test’ is interesting as a small example of a wider problem, which is that AI often works ‘difficult’ and convincingly, but it doesn’t always check what it says and its answers sometimes lack the most ordinary logic. Instead of first concluding what the user actually wanted to achieve, the model knows how to get hooked on a known form of counseling, health, ecology, habits, and other intelligence and then deliver a nicely composed text that has nothing to do with the solution.

In practice, this becomes essential as AI enters more and more everyday decisions, from recommendations to assistants that plan, book and automate. If the model doesn’t “get” the user’s goal, it may suggest something that sounds smart but leads you in the wrong direction, especially when it comes to finances, health or safety. That’s why such viral tests are not important because they make fun of AI, but because they remind us that a good text is not the same as a good solution.

Of course, the ‘car wash test’ is not a scientific benchmark, but it is a good common sense check. If, on such a question, the AI ​​begins to moralize about walking and ecology, but forgets the car, you have a signal that you should be extra careful how you set the goal and that its answers should be treated as suggestions, not as authority.