ChatGPT isn't fooling anyone
Jan. 26th, 2026 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAs a way to check in with students (and to help me learn and remember everyone's names), I've found that it's useful to give biweekly online quizzes that reinforce the major class themes. These quizzes are untimed, open-book, and take about five minutes to finish. Again, their purpose is mainly to make sure everyone is engaged and on track, and I like to begin with a simple warm-up question.
The warm-up question for one of last week's quizzes was "Have you been to see the Liberty Bell?" Out of the following six answers, see if you can spot the one generated by ChatGPT.
(1) I'm a Philly native, and I've been three times.
(2) No. I hear it's underwhelming.
(3) I think I went on a field trip in third grade.
(4) Not yet, but I promised my family I'd go with them when they visit.
(5) I saw it in National Treasure with Nic Cage, great film by the way.
(6) The Liberty Bell is one of the most famous symbols of American freedom and independence. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it was originally cast in 1752 to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges, which granted religious freedom and political rights to the colony of Pennsylvania. The bell is best known for its large crack, which developed after repeated use and attempts at repair. Although it was not originally a national symbol, the Liberty Bell became associated with the American Revolution and later with abolitionist and civil rights movements. Today, it stands as a powerful reminder of liberty, justice, and the ongoing struggle to achieve equality for all people in the United States.
The warm-up question for one of last week's quizzes was "Have you been to see the Liberty Bell?" Out of the following six answers, see if you can spot the one generated by ChatGPT.
(1) I'm a Philly native, and I've been three times.
(2) No. I hear it's underwhelming.
(3) I think I went on a field trip in third grade.
(4) Not yet, but I promised my family I'd go with them when they visit.
(5) I saw it in National Treasure with Nic Cage, great film by the way.
(6) The Liberty Bell is one of the most famous symbols of American freedom and independence. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it was originally cast in 1752 to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges, which granted religious freedom and political rights to the colony of Pennsylvania. The bell is best known for its large crack, which developed after repeated use and attempts at repair. Although it was not originally a national symbol, the Liberty Bell became associated with the American Revolution and later with abolitionist and civil rights movements. Today, it stands as a powerful reminder of liberty, justice, and the ongoing struggle to achieve equality for all people in the United States.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-26 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-26 05:43 pm (UTC)This is a (very) guilty pleasure, but I love how the uncanny text and images created by a computer can become their own type of art when shaped with intention by human hands. Gen-AI is great for a visual artist using their own work as a catalyst for a cannibalistic digital feedback loop on the theme of "when there was only one set of footprints on the beach, it was because you were being carried by one of the eldritch fishpeople from HP Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth," for instance.
What I wish more people would realize is that Gen-AI often isn't so great for more practical tasks.
Here's Ocean Horror Lovecraft Jesus btw:
no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 11:06 am (UTC)kid, you had one job
yes/no
lmao
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Date: 2026-01-27 02:20 pm (UTC)I’m considering conducting a biweekly shaming ritual. I would never single out anyone by name, of course. But I think it might be entertaining. I could bring snacks and make a proper circus of it.
* This tends to be anything older than 2010, which has intriguing “lost media” speculative potential. Like what if. Let’s say there was a piece of fiction that all generative AI programs misrepresent, but they all misrepresent it in a consistent way. What are their hallucinations based on? Is there perhaps an ur-text, like an unpublished draft version of the text that Google randomly scanned in the 2010s but never saw the light of day? What if the original version was super cursed, and now that version is leaking out through Gen-AI summaries?
no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 11:24 pm (UTC)...and goddamn these kids are so fucking stupid.
Like I had a question about a character who's a calligrapher. The first line of the short ten-page story about her says she's a calligrapher. We had an hour-long class discussion about this character, who again: is a calligrapher. We watched two clips from the movie adaptation of the story in which the character does calligraphy. So I asked: What is the job of this character at the publisher where she works?
And fully a dozen students sent me back an answer that was wildly off the mark, like:
Kanae works as a midwife, which was an important role in Edo-period Japan. In an age when most births took place at home and medical knowledge was passed down through apprenticeship rather than formal schooling, midwives were trusted figures who moved quietly between households, carrying both practical skill and cultural authority. Kanae’s work would have required not only a steady hand and deep familiarity with the rhythms of childbirth, but also discretion, emotional resilience, and an understanding of ritual, as birth was closely tied to beliefs about purity, fate, and family lineage.
No amount of snow on the ground is going to save these kids' asses when I roast them in class tomorrow.
Anyway, I apologize for ranting in response to a two-word reply, but you probably get this better than many people - I feel like these days I'm always torn between "this new technology is interesting" and "I hope people don't use it in the stupidest way imaginable (they will)."