Publisher’s Roadside Journal: Elephant and a rabbit fall in love

By Chuck Woodbury
ROADSIDE JOURNAL

Elephant and Rabbit Love

I enjoy playing with artificial intelligence (even though I fear it, too), specifically writing using A.I. To illustrate: Several times in the past we have held contests where we posted about 20 to 25 unrelated words and then asked our readers to write a story of no longer than 100 to 120 words that included all the random words. We would offer a cash prize for the most creative.

Today, I was thinking of holding another, similar, reader contest.

But then I thought, “I bet some tech-savvy readers could cheat by using A.I.” So I gave the idea a test. I put together some random words and then asked ChatGPT to write a story. In about 20 seconds, it was finished. And wow!

Here are my instructions which include the required words, and the story that A.I. spit out in a matter of seconds. I did not change a single word:

My instructions to ChatGPT
“Write a story no longer than 120 words about an elephant who falls in love with a rabbit. The following words must be included and capitalized where appropriate: Ralph, affectionate, robbery, large, blue, hairball, rubber, Trump, organized, zoo, beer, Corvette, computer, head-over-heels, robot, spaceship, slum.”

And here is the A.I.-written story:

Ralph, a large, affectionate elephant at the zoo, had fallen head-over-heels for a small rabbit named Blue. Every day, he’d watch her hop around, her soft fur gleaming like a spaceship in the sun. One day, a robbery occurred—someone had stolen the zoo’s computer! Ralph, determined to help, rallied his friends, including a rubber-boot-wearing robot named Trump. They followed a trail of fur and a suspicious hairball to a slum near the zoo.

To their surprise, they found Blue, laughing and sipping beer. “I was just trying to organize a heist for my new Corvette,” she winked. Ralph’s heart swelled with love. No matter what, he’d always adore his mischievous bunny.

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