[HN Gopher] BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, creating persona...
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       BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, creating personalized stories
       using OpenAI
        
       Author : nickthegreek
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2023-02-14 17:12 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
        
       | throwuxiytayq wrote:
       | Buzzfeed looks extremely shortable right now.
        
       | rngname22 wrote:
       | This is a great idea, it's basically curated prompting / curated
       | interactive storytelling experiences, but the actual execution
       | they demo'd seems really shit?
       | 
       | I guess that's because the only way Buzzfeed quizzes are positive
       | ROI is if the quiz-maker can design the quiz in like 3 minutes
       | and publish it. Which isn't meant to be a criticism, just a guess
       | at the actual economics of their content writing costs and
       | returns on quiz content.
       | 
       | Or perhaps it's like a hackathon project and just using it to
       | gauge interest before investing more dev time?
        
       | colesantiago wrote:
       | Disappointing use case.
       | 
       | You would have to be an idiot to think this grift would save
       | Buzzfeed a low profit generating company SPACed out of low a
       | interest rate economy.
       | 
       | Times will be tough.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
       | Frankly, I had the impression they had been doing this for
       | years...
        
       | dpflan wrote:
       | Oh man, someone in an earlier discussion brought up quasi-zombie
       | companies trying to ride this hype-cycle wave into relevance (or
       | some stock price pumping). I mean adding AI or blockchain to your
       | company name or mission for the past years was a little steroid
       | shot in the financial casino.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | jgalt212 wrote:
       | Buzzfeed is grasping at straws here. The stock over tripled on
       | their OpenAI announcement. That being said, expectations are
       | coming back to earth as its given up most of that bump.
       | 
       | https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BZFD?p=BZFD&.tsrc=fin-srch
        
       | burkaman wrote:
       | You can try some out here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzy
       | 
       | It's even lazier than I imagined. ChatGPT is super popular, I
       | feel like everyone already knows they can just do this themselves
       | without going through Buzzfeed. I don't understand why they think
       | this will be successful.
       | 
       | Also, even the output is not very good. I did this rom-com one
       | (https://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/ai-romcom-quiz), and it seemed to
       | get confused and treat my romantic interest's most attractive
       | feature as my endearing flaw. I don't think they've tested these
       | prompts very much.
        
         | joegahona wrote:
         | Also lazy: They don't seem to know the definition of the word
         | "quiz." They are just taking an old device that worked for them
         | a decade ago and Frankensteining on "AI" to try to catch
         | lightning in a bottle again. Like watching an aging band switch
         | their image/sound to try to regain relevance.
        
           | burkaman wrote:
           | Yes it's more like Infinite Mad Libs, but that's probably
           | copyrighted.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | aliqot wrote:
       | Of all news outlets that _shouldn 't_ have access to AI, it's the
       | Buzzfeeds of the world.
        
         | fathyb wrote:
         | I feel the opposite: I'd rather have AI generate pop quizzes
         | instead of pieces on geopolitical events. Unfortunately, we're
         | likely going to get both.
        
       | madamelic wrote:
       | I didn't play with this but having read the press release, this
       | makes me wonder how bad AI is going to be for the human psyche.
       | 
       | Imagine how bad social media already is, AI is going to be
       | infinitely (the actual meaning) worse for society and not just
       | with deepfakes. We are charging deeper into darkness with no idea
       | of how to make a metaphorical lantern.
       | 
       | If the march of AI continues and it will, we are going to see
       | people become entirely lost and detached from reality. This will
       | result in people becoming digital zombies where they are either
       | physically or metaphorically hooked into machines and living an
       | alternative life. In social media, there was at least glimpses of
       | interaction with human beings with some social 'nutrition' or
       | ability to translate to 'real life'. With AI, there is none, it
       | becomes mental junk food that charades as veggies and the barrier
       | of training is so high that bad actors (governments, global
       | corporations, etc) are going to use this position to seed their
       | own thoughts in society without being realized and squeeze free
       | diverse thought out.
       | 
       | In some ways, this is a utopia: dementia, bed-ridden, paraplegic,
       | etc. In other ways, it is hikikomori on mega-steroids.
       | 
       | I am a proponent of the hardware singularity, but I am fearful of
       | what an AI singularity would mean for human beings en masse. We
       | are charging into still uncharted territory and the problem is
       | going to get a lot worse.
        
         | stevofolife wrote:
         | You talk about the effect and outcome but what's actually "bad"
         | about it?
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-14 23:02 UTC)