It’s so tempting to do. You write something or give a talk/presentation about AI and a few paragraphs/minutes in, you pull out the Big Reveal that what you read/said was generated by ChatGPT.
“Woah” swoons the crowd (did not see that one coming, eh?)
It’s basically this old trick (stay to the end to see how the metaphor goes).
I was reminded of this listening to a recent episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000– Episode 22: Congressional ‘AI’ Hearings Say More about Lawmakers. Co-host Emily Bender describes a shared clip from the opening remarks by US Representative Nancy Mace:
I am going to start us off actually with an audio artifact this time um and this comes from a hearing in the House um. And full disclosure, it ruins the punchline a little bit to tell you all this ahead of time, but I feel very strongly about not subjecting people to synthetic media without their knowledge. So what we’re going to hear first is Representative Nancy Mace reading some ChatGPT output. And then we’re going to hear her owning up to having read ChatGPT
Emily Bender, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 22 (emphasis added by me)
Actually you can watch the whole thing on the tube:
It looks the tablecloths in the chambers are blue. Just don’t pull on them.
I certainly may have done this trick myself, the temptation is high. Just try to avoid doing it and if not, watch out for the falling shelves.
Featured Image: Single frame from Table Cloth Trick YouTube video by LiberaFan4Ever
It is such a rare occasion that when someone tells you to watch to the end, it’s actually worth it to do so. However, staying through to the curtain call did not disappoint. ?
I know! When I was looking for videos, this was the first one, but I skipped because it looked like just a goofy kids thing. Most of the other videos were about how to do the trick, I wanted one that just showed it in action.
And this was perfect as a metaphor, plus there were no self promo intros. Just a video.
Thanks for reading and watching, Bonni!