23 Words from ChatGPT

Warning: I’m going to go way over my limit today.

I was going to cheat by asking ChatGPT to give me a profound quote of 23 words. What it gave me was 13 words and they weren’t terribly profound. I shouldn’t have been surprised — I mean, it’s not a person. What does artificial intelligence know about profundity? I thought that it would at least be able to count.

My oldest daughter had introduced me to ChatGPT on our road trip. For her work, it can be invaluable. It can summarize sections of Medicare policy that would take her hours to review. I played around with it and asked it about some local historical research I had been working on and it was less than helpful.

Over and over this evening I asked for 23 words. Not a single 23 word anything.

When I asked for funny, they were funny. Here are some of the best ones (word count in parentheses):

Yesterday I saw a guy spill all his Scrabble letters on the road. I asked him, ‘What’s the word on the street? (22)
I used to play piano by ear, but now I use my hands. (13)
Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. (10)
Did you hear about the kidnapping at the playground? They woke up. (12)
“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” – Groucho Marx. (12)
Whenever I try to eat healthy, a chocolate bar looks at me and Snickers. (14)
Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet. (13)

Finally, I asked it to count the words in a sentence. It couldn’t.

Here are two screen shots to illustrate my point