4 ms·

BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, creating personalized stories using OpenAI

39 points by nickthegreek 4y ago

dpflan 4y ago
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 4y ago
  [deleted]
burkaman 4y ago
You can try some out here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzy 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 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.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- joegahona 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    Yes it's more like Infinite Mad Libs, but that's probably copyrighted.
aliqot 4y ago
Of all news outlets that shouldn't have access to AI, it's the Buzzfeeds of the world.
- fathyb 4y ago
  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.
colesantiago 4y ago
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 4y ago
  [deleted]
hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
Frankly, I had the impression they had been doing this for years...
throwuxiytayq 4y ago
Buzzfeed looks extremely shortable right now.
madamelic 4y ago
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 4y ago
  You talk about the effect and outcome but what's actually "bad" about it?
jgalt212 4y ago
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 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BZFD?p=BZFD&.tsrc=fin-srch
rngname22 4y ago
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?
Awelton 4y ago
I am more surprised that their previous content wasn't automatically generated.

39 points by nickthegreek 4y ago

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 4y ago
[deleted]

burkaman 4y ago

You can try some out here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzy 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 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.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
joegahona 4y ago
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 4y ago
  Yes it's more like Infinite Mad Libs, but that's probably copyrighted.

aliqot 4y ago

Of all news outlets that shouldn't have access to AI, it's the Buzzfeeds of the world.

fathyb 4y ago
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.

colesantiago 4y ago

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 4y ago
[deleted]

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago

Frankly, I had the impression they had been doing this for years...

throwuxiytayq 4y ago

Buzzfeed looks extremely shortable right now.

madamelic 4y ago

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 4y ago
You talk about the effect and outcome but what's actually "bad" about it?

jgalt212 4y ago

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 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BZFD?p=BZFD&.tsrc=fin-srch

rngname22 4y ago

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?

Awelton 4y ago

I am more surprised that their previous content wasn't automatically generated.