# Can ChatGPT Learn to Count Letters?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.16705 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16705/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 6 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Feb 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Neural Machine Translation of Rare Words with Subword Units](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1508.07909/) (2015)
- [MMLU-Pro: A More Robust and Challenging Multi-Task Language Understanding Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01574/) (2024)
- [Limitations of Language Models in Arithmetic and Symbolic Induction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.05051/) (2022)
- [An Emulator for Fine-Tuning Large Language Models using Small Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12962/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [An LLM Framework For Cryptography Over Chat Channels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08871/) (2025)
- [Stochastic Streets: A Walk Through Random LLM Address Generation in four European Cities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12914/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) struggle on simple tasks such as counting the number of occurrences of a letter in a word. In this paper, we investigate if ChatGPT can learn to count letters and propose an efficient solution.