We asked Google’s AI chatbot Bard what it thought of the Thursday quiz, and it said: “I have not taken the Thursday quiz myself but I have read some of the questions and answers. I find the questions to be interesting and well-written, and I think the quiz is a great way to stay up-to-date on current events and learn new things.” So that is you told. Fifteen questions. The usual mix of news, general knowledge, esoteric nonsense and repetitive in-jokes. Let us know how you get on in the comments, where you can also score bonus points for spotting references to Doctor Who.
The Thursday quiz, No 103
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THE SPY IN THE CAB: The new director of GCHQ will become the first woman to lead the UK’s intelligence, cyber and security agency. Who?
Anne Keast-Butler
Winifred Bambera
Eliza-May Austin
Sophia McCall
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IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: The is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. Sainsbury's supermarket has been besieged with complaints after it started selling what in vacuum packs, with customers saying it ruined the texture?
Organic carrots
Minced beef
Stilton cheese
Dachshund
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ON THIS DAY: On 13 April 1970 an oxygen tank exploded on which Apollo mission, causing the crew to abort their attempt to land on the moon?
Apollo 12
Apollo 13
Apollo 14
Apollo 15
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A GOOD WALK SPOILED: Sport questions are always popular, so who won the 2023 US Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia?
Gordon Tipple
Charles Martinet
Roger Delgado
Jon Rahm
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It would (probably) have been Guy Fawkes birthday today, as most accounts give 13 April 1570 as his date of birth. But where?
Queen Street, Nottingham
Charing Cross, London
Stonegate, York
Walcot Street, Bath
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY (SLIGHT RETURN): It is also Lou Bega's birthday today! Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary and Jessica send their regards. Which mambo was his huge international hit?
Mambo No 3
Mambo No 5
Mambo No 7
Mambo No 9
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COASTAL EROSION: The 188-year-old Grade II-listed storm tower affectionately known as the Pepperpot is to be moved inland by 100 metres to prevent it falling into the sea. Where?
Dawlish, Devon
Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
Charmouth, Dorset
Bude, Cornwall
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HOW TERRIBLY TAXING: Dylan Davies is being plagued with tax bills after 11,000 companies were registered to his address. Where does he live?
Pontypridd
Swansea
Bridgend
Cardiff
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NORTH OR SOUTH WITH THE POKÉMON MEOWTH: Which of these cities in the US is furthest north?
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Denver
Memphis
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MATHS WITH GOTHS: Robert Smith of the Cure is pondering what the probability is of getting two heads if he flips three coins simultaneously?
1/8
3/8
5/8
7/8
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COCKTAIL O'CLOCK: In a classic mojito, you need fresh mint, sugar, lime, soda water, and which alcoholic component?
Vodka
Whiskey
Ouzo
Rum
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GCSE SCIENCE CORNER WRITTEN BY GOOGLE'S BARD AI: We asked Bard "Can you write a multiple choice question about physics pitched at GCSE level students" and it said "A car is travelling at a speed of 20m/s. The driver applies the brakes and the car comes to a stop in 5 seconds. What is the car's acceleration?"
-4m/s^2
-8m/s^2
-16m/s^2
-32m/s^2
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NAUGHTY CHATGPT: A regional mayor has said he may sue OpenAI if it does not correct ChatGPT’s false claims he had served time in prison for bribery, in what would be the first defamation lawsuit against the automated text service. Where does the mayor live?
Wimberley, Texas
Hepburn Shire, Australia
Moissac, France
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough, Northern Ireland
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SAY GOODBYE: We lost Paul Cattermole from S Club 7, and pop fans of a certain era were united in an outpouring of grief. How many UK No 1 singles did S Club 7 have?
None
Two
Four
Seven
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OUT ON THE WILY WINDY MOORS: We also lost Ian Bairnson, the guitarist who played the solo on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Which of these bands was he also in?
Sailor
Pilot
Bad Company
Sparks
Solutions
1:A - Currently serving as the deputy director of MI5, she succeeds Sir Jeremy Fleming in a scheduled change. Her appointment on Tuesday makes her the first female intelligence agency head since Stella Rimington and Eliza Manningham-Buller., 2:B - Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended its new packaging for mince that shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile” because the squishy meat was now a slightly different type of squishy. The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025., 3:B - The story later made it as a movie, even if they didn't get to their intended destination., 4:D - Whatever., 5:C - He was a Yorkshire lad, who came to an uncomfortable end in 1606., 6:B - It ended up in a massive copyright lawsuit in Germany that took seven years to resolve, as it leaned heavily on riffs and samples from an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949., 7:D - Designed by George Wightwick in homage to the Tower of the Winds in Athens, the tower has eight sides that map the points of a compass. It would have been occupied by a coastguard during high tides and storms, while a “tide-waiter” would have used the nearby flagpole to alert ships as they navigated the area’s treacherous waters., 8:D - HMRC’s permanent secretary, Jim Harra, said 2,356 of the 11,000 businesses registered at the address owed it money. Ouch., 9:C - Denver, in Colorado, is the only one of these cities above the 37th parallel north, which forms the state's southern border., 10:B - There are eight possible outcomes – HHT, HTH, THH, TTH, THT, HTT, TTT and HHH – of which three give the desired outcome. , 11:D - It is a white rum based drink, and very delicious with it., 12:A - It explained "The correct answer is (B). The car's acceleration is equal to the change in velocity divided by the time taken for the change to occur. In this case, the car's velocity changes from 20m/s to 0m/s in 5 seconds. The change in velocity is therefore 20m/s, and the acceleration is 20m/s / 5s = -4m/s^2. The negative sign indicates that the acceleration is in the opposite direction to the car's velocity, i.e. the car is slowing down". However it gave option B as -8m/s^2. Nul points, AI, nul points. , 13:B - Brian Hood was actually the whistleblower in the case involved, but ChatGPT has "hallucinated" a different role for him in a foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s, and he isn't very happy about it., 14:C - Debut single Bring It All Back, Never Had a Dream Come True, Don't Stop Movin' and Have You Ever all hit the top spot. S Club Party and Say Goodbye were among the five singles they had that reached No 2. Rest well Paul., 15:B - Bairnson was a key member of Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project, and Pilot did actually tour with Sparks at one point in the 1970s. He also played on Kate Bush's first four albums between 1978 and 1982, and was a much in demand session musician for most of his career.
Scores
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0 and above.
We hope you had fun – let us know how much you love golf in the comments!
If you think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember the quiz master’s word is final and he will only get a chatbot to reply anyway*.
[*He won’t. Read about how the Guardian is dealing with the implications of AI chatbots here]
