This AI clock uses ChatGPT to generate tiny poems that tell the time

ChatGPT has been one of many web’s favourite toys for months now, however individuals are nonetheless discovering novel and enjoyable methods to make use of the AI chatbot. Working example is that this rhyming E Ink clock created by designer and blogger Matt Webb. It makes use of ChatGPT to create a brief two-line rhyme that additionally tells the time for each minute of the day. It’s unimaginable and we wish one.

Talking to The Verge over DM, Webb defined that the clock is powered by an previous Inky wHAT screen and a Raspberry Pi that he beforehand had arrange as a regular text clock. He’s been taking part in round with OpenAI’s language fashions for some time and had the thought of connecting the 2.

“There’s a single immediate to ChatGPT, and the clock makes use of OpenAI’s API. The time is a parameter to the immediate. The immediate instructs the AI to reply with two rhyming strains, and encourages it to be imaginative and profound,” stated Webb.

He additionally notes that the immediate to ChatGPT explains the bodily setup of the room and the clock’s location in it, which implies the clock is ready to converse as a bodily presence, as within the instance under. “In cozy cabinets, I do reside, / It’s practically midday, the clock confides.”

Webb says that the clock generates new textual content for every time it shows, somewhat than drawing from a preset catalog, and that he makes use of ChatGPT as a result of it’s the most cost effective choice however would favor to attach it to GPT-3.

“If I have been an AI sommelier I’d say that ChatGPT is a neater drink with a protracted end, very clean, however GPT-3 is extra complicated and spicy,” says Webb (who additionally describes his work as that of an “AI sommelier”). “It’s tight with its phrases and has a greater vocab. However not fairly value 10x the price for one thing sitting on my bookshelves.”

Webb has expertise in constructing this type of gadget as he was beforehand CEO and co-founder of design studio BERG, which created a variety of pleasingly bodily digital doodads, together with — my favourite — Little Printer. This was a tiny thermal ink receipt printer that printed out a each day digest of stories headlines, conferences, and all kinds of customizable enter, from buddies’ birthdays to social media notifications.

Webb says the response to his rhyming AI clock has been so enthusiastic that he’s now exploring two routes to take the challenge mainstream. First, offering a package for hackers to construct their very own, and second, making a business product that’s plug-and-play. It’s simple to think about further performance that could possibly be inbuilt, too — like a knob that permits you to regulate the tone of the tiny poems, from hopeful to morbid, relying in your temper.

Webb says he’s nonetheless exploring choices and has no clear concept of when these could be obtainable or how a lot they’ll value. (You’ll be able to join updates here.) “My precedence is to get this into individuals’s arms so I’m pushing on each routes concurrently.” He provides {that a} “massive piece of the puzzle” has been making a customized backend to ship out instances to a number of clocks. The each day value of constructing API calls to ChatGPT for the poems was $1.80 a day — far an excessive amount of for every clock proprietor to pay, however little or no when unfold throughout quite a few models.

There’s one different downside, although. It’s well-known that AI language fashions like ChatGPT generally tend to make up knowledge (typically generally known as “hallucinations”), and it seems that’s true even in the event you’re simply telling the time. Roughly as soon as each quarter-hour, says Webb, the clock will merely lie in regards to the time simply to make a sure rhyme work. “The fibbing is hilarious. Generally you’ll be able to’t inform — it’d say ‘one previous two’ when it’s truly ‘two previous one,’” he says. He says this might be fixable however, for now, is a enjoyable quirk of the system. “Clockwork means you get precision drift; AI-work means you get hallucination drift.”