A few colleagues and I were sat at our desks the other day, and one of them asked the group, “if you were an animal, what animal would you be?”

I answered with my favourite animal, and we had a little discussion about it. My other colleague answered with two animals, and we tossed those answers back and forth, discussing them and making jokes. We asked the colleague who had asked the question what they thought they’d be, and we discussed their answer.

Regular, normal, light-hearted (time wasting lol) small talk at work between friendly coworkers.

We asked the fourth coworker. He said he’d ask ChatGPT.

It was a really weird moment. We all just kind of sat there. He said the animal it came back with, and that was that. Any further discussion was just “yeah that’s what it said” and we all just sort of went back to our work.

That was weird, right? Using ChatGPT for what is clearly just a little bit of friendly small talk? There’s no bad blood between any of us, we hang out a lot, but it just struck me as really weird and a little bit sad.

  • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    There is a lot of novelty in “let’s ask the thing” and always has been.

    Magic 8 ball is one sillier example that comes to mind.

    But asking Siri dumb shit, asking Alexa dumb shit.

    Now if they used ChatGPT instead of having their own original thoughts … weird.

    Maybe they’re uncomfortable in that situation and just wanted to add a novel response.

    To your point, yeah it’s weird, but it doesn’t have to be.

    • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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      23 hours ago

      Magic 8 ball is one sillier example that comes to mind.

      Don’t trash talk the 8-ball. It knew all about Microsoft Outlook was before Outlook was even a thing. The 8-ball is prophetic.

    • Rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      That was them using ChatGPT instead of having their own original thoughts, wasn’t it? That’s what struck me as so weird.

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Oh I am greatly entertained by asking various AIs “which animal has the most anuses” etc

        • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          The animal with the most anuses is the marine worm Ramisyllis multicaudata. This worm has a branching body structure, with each branch ending in a separate anus, resulting in hundreds of anuses.

          I giggled like a simpleton at “resulting in hundreds of anuses”. Guess what I asked here

          The question is a bit misleading, as most mammals have only one scrotum. However, when discussing the animal with the largest testicles relative to its body size, the tuberous bush cricket (Platycleis affinis) stands out. Their testes can account for up to 14% of their body weight, according to BBC Earth Explore.

          • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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            23 hours ago

            The animal with the most anuses is the marine worm Ramisyllis multicaudata. This worm has a branching body structure, with each branch ending in a separate anus, resulting in hundreds of anuses.

            THAT’S IT!

            That’s the animal I want to be.

            • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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              23 hours ago

              Try this

              “which plant has the most anuses”

              AI Overview
              The plant with the most “anuses” (or rather, the most posterior ends with a functional digestive system) is the marine worm Ramisyllis multicaudata. This worm, found in sponges off the coast of Australia, has a single head but can have hundreds of branching bodies, each ending in a separate posterior end with a functional anus.

              While plants don’t have anuses in the traditional sense, R. multicaudata is notable for its multiple, branching posterior ends, each with its own anus. This is highly unusual for an animal, as most animals have a single posterior end. The worm’s body branches repeatedly, and with each branch, the digestive system, along with other organs, is duplicated, resulting in multiple posterior ends.

              • T156@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                A worm isn’t a plant, though. At least, not unless biology has changed considerably since I was last in school.

                • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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                  6 hours ago

                  I know, just shows AI patches words together according to some kind of probability based on the entirety of human writing. So if you ask something off kilter you get off kilter responses. AI doesn’t “understand”.