[AI can be really, really dumb.]

A tip from friend-of-the-site Alex S. led me to enjoy a good laugh at X Formerly Twitter’s expense. It seems their AI bot Grok recently decided to just fabricate an entire news story out of thin air. It’s some really incredible nonsense.

As Golden State was eliminated from the NBA playoffs on Tuesday, Warriors guard Klay Thompson had a rough night. Despite playing 32 minutes, he put up 0 points while shooting 0-for-10. In basketball slang, he shot bricks.

Though that’s a very ugly stat line, it’s not actually criminal. Grok, however, believed otherwise:

This is like a game of Telephone, being presented as real news. It’s funny, but it’s also pretty terrible.

As you might be able to make out, that fictitious story includes this very hard-to-read disclaimer:

Grok is an early feature and can make mistakes.

Clearly.

Link: https://www.engadget.com/xs-ai-bot-is-so-dumb-it-cant-tell-the-difference-between-a-bad-game-and-vandalism-172707401.html?guccounter=1

Jason Kottke:

Ryan Gosling was on Saturday Night Live this weekend and they did a sequel to one of my favorite SNL sketches (which is completely dorky in a design nerd sort of way) ever: Papyrus. Behold, Papyrus 2.

See also: Elle Cordova’s “Fonts Hanging Out” trilogy.

CHIRIBIQUETE — A historic expedition went underway this week, as a dedicated man began his search through the most remote reaches of the Amazon jungle to find an uncontacted tribe of natives so he could tell them that he does Crossfit.

U.S. — As the debate over the gender wage gap among professional basketball players raged on, people who were angry about low WNBA salaries proudly declared they were prepared to do anything necessary to bring about change except for watching WNBA games.

Hahahahahah pic.twitter.com/PGQiSWSTxf

— Enez Özen (@Enezator) March 13, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a bold move aimed at tackling one of the most pressing issues facing the next generation, President Biden has unveiled his latest executive action: a plan to eliminate late fees for Blockbuster movie rentals.