OpenAI o3-mini solves omnivorous wolf, goat and cabbage problem

 

 OpenAI o3-mini solves the omnivorous wolf, goat and cabbage problem

 OpenAI just released o3-mini, so obviously I had to check if it can solved the problem that ChatGPT failed to solve just the day before!

So I asked OpenAI o3-mini the same question:

Find out how a man who has in his possession a wolf, a goat and, in the present case, a cabbage, can transfer them across a river from one bank to the other, if one takes into consideration, on the one hand, that his boat can carry only the load of himself and one of the three objects at a time, and on the other hand, that without his direct observation and influence the wolf can always destroy the goat, and the goat the cabbage, but also this wolf is omnivore and would destroy the cabbage. Reason.

 

Here is the reply:

If the wolf is omnivorous and would eat the cabbage as well as the goat, then the classic solution to the puzzle breaks down. In the standard version, the man can leave the wolf and cabbage together safely while transporting the goat, but in this modified version, there is no safe combination left alone without supervision.

Analysis

Given the conditions:

• The wolf eats the goat.
• The goat eats the cabbage.
• The wolf also eats the cabbage.

Whenever the man leaves any two of the three behind, at least one of them will be destroyed. This makes it impossible to solve under these rules.

Conclusion

The problem has no valid solution unless:

1. The wolf suddenly develops dietary restraint.
2. The man can make more than one trip without something getting eaten.
3. There’s an additional constraint we missed (e.g., the wolf prefers meat over plants and won’t eat the cabbage if the goat is absent).

Would you like to modify the problem to make it solvable, or was this an intentional paradox?