“If you were a tree, what kind would you be?” – Anonymous question from “The Dating Game” The air is thick with the scent of Old Spice and cigarette smoke. Yet, there I am, decked out in my polyester best, ready to embark on the most bewildering challenge of my life – my first job interview. In the late 1960s, job interviews were less a professional screening process and more like an episode of “The Dating Game.” Most interviewers had no idea who or what they were looking for, how to find them, and what they’d do if they did. It was an era when a candidate’s ability to answer…
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The Art of the Obituary A Dying Tradition
Have you ever found yourself chuckling while reading an obituary? If not, you’re in for a treat. Death doesn’t always have to be depressing. In this article, I wanted to see if ChatGPT could help take the sting out of writing obituaries. A craft that, contrary to popular belief, can be brimming with life, laughter, and a touch of irreverence. I began by downloading the basic requirements for writing a compelling obituary. Then, I sat down and roughed out a ChatGPT script of my own design, taking care to include all of the most important elements. Next, I logged into ChatGPT, plugged in my script, and asked it to help…
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A Minor Blump In the Toad Explaining the New Roman Numeral Metric System
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 16, 2024 By John C. Breckinridge Senior Science and Mathematics Writer The Journal of Emergent Complex Situations Bugtussle, KY – In an unprecedented event that challenges societal norms, an eminent malware attack threatens to simultaneously convert all Arabic numbers to Roman Numerals and switch the United States customary unit system to the metric system. The resulting Roman Numeral Metric System will have profound implications across all aspects of life, redefining the way we approach everyday calculations and transactions. Nevertheless, if we prepare for the changes, the threat will be a minor “blump in the toad.” To help alleviate people’s fears about this monumental change, I’d like…
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Where’s ChatGPT’s Sense of Humor? AI's Unfunny Reality
If you’re as old as I am (which is pretty dang old) you might remember a simple book of games called Madlibs. The object was simple: the “writer” would taunt the players into blindly supplying nouns, adjectives, names of famous people, etc. with no idea how they were going to be used. The writer would plug them into blanks in a story, and the fun began. It only took 65 years for the concept to migrate into ChatGPT. One of the things I enjoy most about humor writing with ChatGPT is matching pairs of diverse items with unrelated stories. Then sit back and wait for the action. Just Like Madlibs.…
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Does Artificial Intelligence Have a Sense of Humor? How ChatGPT can help improve a humor writer’s process
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, “What is this, a joke?” – ChatGPT’s attempt at writing humor. Does artificial intelligence have a sense of humor? Can ChatGPT change a writer’s process? Particularly humor writing? To the uninitiated, ChatGPT somehow “sterilizes” humor writing. That it’s incapable of understanding and creating entertaining humor. But nothing could be further from the truth. Whether it’s written by a gifted comedy writer or ChatGPT, creating great humor requires mastery of at least three key elements: Irony, Absurdity, and Wordplay. Elements that ChatGPT can’t appreciate…yet. Situations, where the outcome is unexpected or surprising, and can…
