The last part of this past January was brutally cold, and it felt like it had been forever since we last had seasonally normal temperatures. Pulling up my favorite Gemini chatbot, I asked it, "Using the daily high temperatures for January 2026 at the Dayton International Airport, calculate the average high temperature and list each day's high temperature."
The average was 31.7°F, significantly colder than the mid-30s average. The table below shows all the highs, and I was surprised that the highest was 61°F on the 13th. Without the frigid temperatures over the last five days, it would have been a normal January.
I ran the same question a few times, and the Gemini chatbot demonstrated one of AI's big problems: making things up. It returned totally wrong temperatures that were, fortunately, easy to spot. I told it the numbers were not correct; it rechecked, told me I was right, then produced the correct numbers. Computers are good, but never take them as perfect.
