It is “the latest in artificial intelligence”.
CatGPT
Of course, OpenAI’s hugely popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT, is extremely good at spitting out some seriously impressive content, from credible academic essays to source code and even real estate listings.
But that kind of AI prowess left Dutch data journalist Wouter van Dijke wanting more. The self-proclaimed “Twitter bot enthusiast” took it upon himself to answer the ultimate question: “What if ChatGPT was a cat?” »
“ChatGPT is boring,” he wrote on his GitHub. “I want a cat to answer my questions. So I built CatGPT!”
CatGPT, as the name suggests, lets you ask “pawtifurcial intelligence” pretty much anything you’d ask of a real-life cat.
What you get in response is a series of “meows” – since, well, cats can’t speak English.
“CatGPT uses a purr network and advanced hairball gorithm to come up with natural-sounding responses,” van Dijke wrote in his pun-laden documentation.
Random meows
The reality, as you might guess, is that the technology isn’t particularly advanced.
“Not really, it just returns random meows,” admitted van Dijke.
Of course, that’s probably true for real cats too.
“To be clear: this site does not actually use ChatGPT or any other form of AI,” he wrote. “Nothing is done with user input either.”
While a fun and ironic take on ChatGPT, the project was more of a self-directed lesson in how to build a basic website that looks and acts exactly like the real thing.
“It took some back and forth to get something to look good, but it was very helpful in creating a basic structure for the web page,” van Dijke wrote.
But it’s also exactly the kind of levity we needed after weeks of reporting on the slow death of journalism at the hands of AI.
Or, in CatGPT’s words: “Meow, meow meow meow, meow meow?”
Learn more about ChatGPT: Shameless real estate agents are already preparing property listings with ChatGPT