# Inspirational AI? Not so much! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [October 9, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330 "2023-10-09T20:30:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/1 "2023-10-09T20:30:21Z")
This link purportedly gives funny examples of AI failing to motivate. I wonder how much of it is contrived, but it did make me laugh. > **[This A.I. Is Supposed To Create Inspiring Images, But The Results Are Funny...](https://www.boredpanda.com/ai-generated-inspirational-funny-quotes-great-and-holy-pangolin/)** > > So... inspirational? No. Funny? Often. I’ve used Inspirobot to create inspiration and advice for you to remember. Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/2 "2023-10-09T20:56:47Z")
This blog might be of interest to readers of this thread. > **[AI Weirdness](https://www.aiweirdness.com/)** > > The weird side of artificial intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/3 "2023-10-10T17:04:18Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > This link purportedly gives funny examples of AI failing to motivate. I wonder how much of it is contrived, but it did make me laugh. It does seem quite contrived, doesn’t it? But I did go to the Inspirobot webpage, and it did give me inspirations in the style of what’s in that article. Like this is the last two I got: “Stupidity is the only medicine that really helps.” “Cynicism is an old whore without a soul.” So I do wonder if it is tuned to be silly but sensical, or if it’s not really AI but some sort of AdLibs type of fill-in-the-blank algorithm, or who knows. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/4 "2023-10-10T17:27:55Z")
One of the comments notes that Inspirobot isn’t a true AI, but rather it has a complex list that it draws from to generate quotes. Although that could possibly still be considered an AI using the broader definition, that is “any computer program that could reasonably be interpreted as intelligent”, it isn’t a generative AI along the lines of Chat GPT. ETA: And having tried it myself, it’s almost certainly choosing an image from a large set of existing images. AIs that actually generate images are nowhere near that fast. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/5 "2023-10-10T17:29:08Z")
They could sell them instead as Demotivational Posters, since there’s apparently a small market for that… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/6 "2023-10-10T19:24:52Z")
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was suspecting. I feel like I remember seeing some version of this, but only generating quotes, like 15-20 years ago. It’s not what I consider AI when I use that term. A Commodore 64 could that (though with a way stripped down set of possible outputs.) As for the images, they do repeat. I’ve gotten a couple that have been featured in the article (the banana one and one other one that I can’t remember right now.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/7 "2023-10-10T20:25:11Z")
I played around with those a while back and saved a bunch of them. [![](https://i.postimg.cc/pTNNQYQ2/inspirogrid.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/pTNNQYQ2/inspirogrid.jpg) Here six times nine of them: > **[Album — Postimages](https://postimg.cc/gallery/fRFGzX0)** ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/8 "2023-10-10T20:40:48Z")
I remember a company that printed demotivational posters. Must have been 20 years ago. They looked so much like the motivational ones, that someone I knew pinned one up in his cube and nobody noticed the actual message. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/9 "2023-10-10T23:24:48Z")
I mean if you asked AI to make 10,000 or more inspiring bits of nonsense, a certain percentage will probably come out like the link. So I’m guessing it’s genuine even though it does not seem so or might not be. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/10 "2023-10-11T00:12:19Z")
I don’t doubt that. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think it’s something a bit more formulaic as mentioned by **WildaBeast** , or at least what they read in the comments. It definitely feels like a lot of the sentence patterns repeat if you go after it for awhile. Did you by chance go to the InspiroBot website and try it? It’s not 10,000 tries to get something interesting and funny. It’s like every third or fourth one, at worst. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/11 "2023-10-11T00:22:00Z")
And if you do try it, play with it for a little while … things get a little weird the longer you go on and the more Inspiro-quotes you generate. There’s almost like another story going on. Here’s a Reddit thread (from 2020–Inspirobot is that old) that seems to agree: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AIfreakout/comments/gul6wi/inspirobot\_is\_not\_an\_ai\_lets\_keep\_this\_subreddit/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AIfreakout/comments/gul6wi/inspirobot_is_not_an_ai_lets_keep_this_subreddit/) ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/12 "2023-10-11T03:09:14Z")
They’re still at it. > **[Home of Demotivators® - The World's Best Demotivational Posters](https://despair.com/)** > > Motivational posters don't work. But our legendary demotivational posters don't work even BETTER! Browse our famed Demotivators® line and see for yourself! My personal favorite: > **[Mistakes](https://despair.com/collections/posters/products/mistakes?variant=2457302467)** > > It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others. Not every life can be a success, just like not every vessel can be seaworthy. But there’s no shame in being one spectacular shipwreck. (Actually, there is. But we’re... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspirational-ai-not-so-much/991330/13 "2023-10-11T04:11:19Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I mean if you asked AI to make 10,000 or more inspiring bits of nonsense, a certain percentage will probably come out like the link. “‘It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times’?! You stupid AI!”