We are living in the age of artificial intelligence and its penetration in our daily life is ever-increasing. Colm O’Regan, a well known Irish comedian, recently asked in the internet for an AI-generated column for the Irish Examiner, and the results were not as expected.
ChatGPT, or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is an AI you can access on the web. It will write content for you if you ask it, no matter how simple or complicated, and provide answers to the request. Colm tested the AI by asking it to write a humorous column for him in the style of an Irish comedian. Unsurprisingly, the results were far from satisfactory, beginning with an introduction that was completely off-brand for O’Regan.
The experience was both unnerving and reassuring for him. It was reassuring as he knew that he still had the upper hand, as the generated copy was not satisfactory. On the other hand, it was also unerving as he feared that readers might not be able to spot the difference.
This brought to light how vulnerable jobs are when AI is taking over. As O’Regan points out, AI can generate even simpler pieces and perform mundane yet necessary tasks in a quicker and more efficient way. Moreover, with the focus inclined on getting more clicks, people might not care about the quality of the content at all.
But fans of O’Regan will be reassured to know that AI is not able to replace him yet. Indeed, a good AI may be able to generate something good in the long run, but it will never be able to capture his unique style and humour. Hence, critics or fans of Colm O’Regan can rest assured that he won’t be leaving his post anytime soon.
Colm O’Regan is one of the most beloved Irish comedians of the 21st Century. One of his most noted and celebrated series was based on the book “Irelandopedia”. He’s also written a number of columns for the Irish Examiner, engaging the public with his irreverent, side-splitting, and downright hilarious commentary.
ChatGPT is, however, an AI designed to provide delightful and thoughtful content written with natural language processing technology. It can, if requested, provide content generated from structured input and can ask questions to help improve the result. Despite the AI’s best efforts, it is still not able to replicate the unique style and wit of Colm O’Regan.
Humor, like any other art form, requires a personal touch that AI, no matter how advanced, still cannot provide. Hence, readers of Colm’s column can continue to enjoy his laidback, funny and often unexpected observations. After all, it is the unique flavor and personality of his work that make it so memorable. As the saying goes, nobody does it like Colm O’Regan.
