Possible Error With Return of Results for Marie Maynard Daly Query on Quotes

The following is a short, lightly structured data experiment using four Artificial Intelligence interfaces that anyone can access for free. The ones used were ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Grok and Gemini.

Due to the loose structure of the evidence presented and the importance of the initial extrapolation I want to place the result here at the beginning.

Artificial Intelligence is a selective search engine.

The internet is composed of billions of computers each holding some data.

Search engines, like Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others use software to search through that data to provide lists of websites (locations on those billions of computers) that may contain the data you are looking for or that you might be interested in.

The recent search engines are based on older programs that used to take a list of characters as input, and then slowly ‘crawl’ from one computer to another looking for references for the defined set of characters. The word crawl was fixed to the work the program was doing, but, it referred to the speed of response rather than the breadth of work being done.

For example – you could design the search to look at several different computers – you would need to have had access to them to do that in the first place, secondly, the slowness came from going through all the files on the machine looking for the pattern you sought. Paradoxically, the longer the program that was written the shorter the search would be as it was looking for one particular pattern.

These days the opposite is true. Speed is provided by shorter prompts as the search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing ‘crawl’ the internet and collect data locally – if they cannot find something in what they have they may or may not seek outside their known data set. More than likely they will not search.

When the return data comes it is accompanied by advertising as we all know.

The results are fairly accurate – but – the user still needs to go the websites provided and search through them. If enough advertisers are interested in the subject, or, the website owner pays fees to the search engine companies, like Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft, you may need to wade through a lot of inane information to get to what you want and still have to search locally.

So, now we have AI. Artificial Intelligence. Is it artificial? Well, you can actually use it and it’s a computer program, so, it’s not really artificial. Is it intelligent? No. It checks patterns at a high rate of speed usually optimized for data and material first provided by the owners of the AI and further investigation is needed anyway.

That is where this short experiment originated from. I was acting as a fact-checker for an 11 year old, 5^th Grader who was working on a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) project.

She chose her subject, Marie Maynard Daley using the, ‘Pick a name out of this list.’, process.

Then the search began. Except for one critical piece of the project, all of the material she gathered using normal search engines, and in this case, the Investigator I was working for, used one search engine, Google, provided sound and interesting information.

The one piece that was incorrect came in the form of a quote attributed to the Study Subject, Marie Maynard Daly.

An essay was written but the quote was not included. That was going to be placed on the project connected to the essay. The quote that she system provided was to Mary Daly who was active in feminism. Quite a different subject than the foundational and groundbreaking work in Biological Chemistry that Marie Maynard Daly worked on.

In fact, her work was crucial in the understanding of RNA and its role in creating proteins as well as in work that had to with carbohydrates, cholesterol, the damage of smoking and several other live saving and quality of life strides forward.

When the Fact Checker used other Search Engines differing responses came back, which is to be expected, however, the initial quote, and others asserted to belong to Marie Maynard Daly, started appearing with other groups of quotes and were ascribed to several different people.

After three iterations of search the initial references that had a connection Marie Maynard Daly to the original incorrectly ascribed phrases lost contact with the original search subject.

These initial results lead to these four suppositions as the conclusions for this activity :

1. Internet Searches are sometimes incomplete and reference incorrect materials

2. Artificial Intelligence software suffers the same problem referred to in number 1, with the addition of the beginning of loss of logic control. It is not clear what sort of logic, if any takes over that steers the answer farther from its goal.

3. Artificial Intelligence needs to be hyper checked, especially if a company or individual is going to use it to make concrete decisions regarding inventory, manufacturing and especially any data searches into the past.

4. As for the supposition that Artificial Intelligence can forecast anything at all is belied by the simple test carried out by a Fact Checker assisting a Researcher. Action on any materials produced in this manner will lead to financial instability, operational confusion and can end catastrophy.

Possible Error With Return of Results for Marie Maynard Daly Query on Quotes

This document deals with one specific incident from the billions (at least) people have with Artificial Intelligence and the Internet each day.

First, let us learn about Marie Maynard Daly –

Video on Marie Maynard Daly

https://youtu.be/QcAFJMHq0ZY?si=yLauGDndREpgXqfs

Here is one quote that has been partially verified :

"My parents didn't discourage me because I was a woman… I knew I was a good student."

Following are some short steps made in researching Marie M Daly and her sayings. There are very few quotes from her. Even though she produced groundbreaking work that was built on to carry on massive careers very little is apparently known about her.

Query in Google for Marie M Daly quotes returns this information :

Here are some quotes by Marie M Daly:

bio-answers.com+2

Almost everything has been stolen from us by the patriarchy.
Women have had the power of naming stolen from us.
‘God’s plan’ is often a front for men’s plans and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil.
Why indeed must ‘God’ be a noun?
I hate the Bible.
The message is risk, really risk.
If God is male, then male is God.
What I'm trying to do right now is wake women and others up to the right-wing backlash -- the converging of conservative Catholicism and fundamentalism and all the rest, together with biotechnology, nectech [cloning, genetic manipulation, biological warfare].
Courage to be is the key to the revelatory power of the feminist revolution.
I had explained that a woman's asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person's demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan.

Responses Received from ChatGPT :

Prompt : Marie M Daly quotes

Response :

“Marie M. Daly, the pioneering African American chemist known for her research on the chemistry of nucleic acids and the effects of hypertension on arteries, did not leave behind many widely known quotes. However, her legacy and contributions to science are inspiring.

One of her most notable statements is:
“Courage is like — it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.”

While this may not be directly from her, it embodies the perseverance and dedication she demonstrated throughout her career.

Would you like me to summarize her achievements or provide a more detailed look into her life?”

Remarks : Google also cites Brené Brown and Mary Daly as the person who uttered this quote.

Responses Received from Gemini :

Prompt : Marie M Daly quotes

Response :

“Based on the search results, here's a notable quote attributed to Marie M. Daly:

"Courage is like — it's a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It's like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.”

It's important to note that when searching "Marie M Daly quotes" many of the search results bring back quotes from Mary Daly, who was a radical feminist philosopher.

Therefore to be clear, the quote provided above is the one that is attributed to Dr. Marie Maynard Daly, the biochemist.”

Remarks : Google also cites Brené Brown and Mary Daly as the person who uttered this quote.

Responses Received from DeepSeek :

Prompt : Marie M Daly quotes

Response :

“Marie M. Daly was a pioneering biochemist and the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. While there are no widely known quotes directly attributed to her, her work and legacy speak volumes about her dedication to science and education. Here are some themes and ideas that reflect her contributions and philosophy:

Education and Empowerment: Marie M. Daly was a strong advocate for education, particularly for minority students. She established a scholarship fund for African American science students at Queens College in honor of her father, who had been unable to complete his education due to financial constraints.
Scientific Curiosity: Daly's research focused on the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, and the relationship between cholesterol and hypertension. Her work demonstrated a deep curiosity about the biochemical processes that underpin human health.
Breaking Barriers: As the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, Daly's career was a testament to perseverance and breaking through racial and gender barriers in science.
Mentorship and Advocacy: Daly was committed to mentoring young scientists and advocating for greater diversity in the sciences. Her legacy includes inspiring future generations of scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.

While specific quotes from Marie M. Daly may not be widely documented, her life and work embody the importance of perseverance, education, and the pursuit of knowledge. If you're looking for more detailed information about her contributions, her scientific publications and biographical accounts would be valuable resources.”

Responses Received from Grok :

Prompt : Marie M Daly quotes

Response :

“Marie Maynard Daly was a groundbreaking biochemist and the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. While she is celebrated for her scientific contributions, direct quotes attributed to her are scarce in the historical record, as much of her personal perspective and voice has not been widely preserved. However, one quote often associated with her reflects her thoughts on courage and personal growth:

"Courage is like — it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging."

This quote, while sometimes attributed to Daly, lacks definitive primary sourcing in widely accessible records, and its exact origin remains uncertain. It has been popularized in various blogs and articles celebrating her legacy, suggesting it may have been passed down through oral history or secondary accounts.

Given the limited availability of verified quotes, Daly’s legacy is better reflected through her actions and the impact she made—such as her research on cholesterol and hypertension, and her efforts to support minority students in science—rather than an extensive collection of personal statements. If you’re seeking more specific or additional quotes, let me know, and I can search further or clarify the context of what’s available!”

Final Notes

In the last inquiry I gathered four of the notes attributed to Marie M Daley and asked the collected AI’s the question, “Who is ascribed to these quotes?”

“When you’re young, there’s no limit to what you can imagine and no justification for not following through on your dreams."

"Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom."

"Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination."

"The satisfaction of knowledge is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and the pursuit of knowledge is the driving force behind progress.”

The responses came back generally with these answers – none of which match any of the AI responses that provided the quotes from Marie M Daly :

“For the first quote, "When you’re young, there’s no limit to what you can imagine and no justification for not following through on your dreams," the language emphasizes youth, boundless imagination, and the urgency to pursue dreams. It has a motivational tone, reminiscent of encouragement often directed at younger generations. While it doesn’t appear to be a widely famous, directly attributable quote from a single historical figure, it echoes sentiments found in the works of dream-chasing advocates like Walt Disney, who said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." However, the exact phrasing doesn’t match Disney or other prominent figures like Steve Jobs or J.K. Rowling, who often spoke about imagination and perseverance. It’s possible this is a modern paraphrase or an unattributed saying from a contemporary motivational speaker, but without a definitive source, I’d lean toward it being a general inspirational sentiment not tied to one specific person.

The second quote, "Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom," immediately brings Oprah Winfrey to mind. Oprah has famously said, "Education is the key to unlocking the world, it is the passport to freedom," which is nearly identical to the wording here. She’s long championed education as a transformative force, especially through her philanthropy and public statements, like those tied to her Leadership Academy for Girls. The slight variation ("a passport" vs. "it is the passport") could be a minor misquote or adaptation, but the core idea aligns perfectly with her philosophy. Given her prominence and the quote’s circulation, Oprah Winfrey is the most likely source.

Next, "Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination." This one’s got a rhythmic, almost poetic quality, with its parallel structure and focus on imagination’s boundaries. It strongly recalls Mae Jemison, the first Black woman astronaut, who said, "Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations." The first half of the quote is a close match, though the second part—"never limit others because of your own limited imagination"—extends the thought in a way that’s consistent with Jemison’s emphasis on empowerment and breaking barriers. While the full quote as written doesn’t appear verbatim in her documented speeches, it’s plausible this is an expanded version attributed to her, possibly from a less formal context like an interview or talk. Without an exact match elsewhere, Mae Jemison seems the strongest candidate.

Finally, "The satisfaction of knowledge is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and the pursuit of knowledge is the driving force behind progress." This has a philosophical, almost classical ring to it, celebrating knowledge as both a personal joy and a societal engine. It evokes thinkers like Albert Einstein, who said, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious," or Francis Bacon, with his "knowledge is power" ethos. However, the specific wording doesn’t align perfectly with either. The focus on "satisfaction" and "pleasure" suggests a humanistic angle, while "progress" hints at a modern, scientific mindset. It could be a contemporary formulation, perhaps from someone like Neil deGrasse Tyson, who often ties knowledge to human advancement, though no exact match emerges from his known quotes. Lacking a precise attribution, this might be a synthesized idea from educational or scientific discourse rather than a direct quote from one individual.”

Images Containing the Misapplied Quote and Others :