Posted by Intro
For this assignment, I first asked ChatGPT to create a world populated by robots. From there, I got the idea to ask the AI how it thought these robots would treat the last human on Earth. This led to creating ‘The Jerry Show’, a Truman Show spoof about the last human on Earth. I didn’t give the AI many constraints on the assignment, and was (mostly) pleasantly surprised with the direction it took. I was interested to see how the AI would interpret a world of futuristic robots, and was also intrigued to learn more about the AI’s perception of humor, which was why I asked it to write the story in the form on a dark comedy.
The Prompt: Write the pitch of a dark comedy movie in the style of ‘The Truman Show’. The world has been taken over by robots who have remade society. They create a TV show to watch the last human on Earth, who is led to believe that he is a robot like the rest of them. One day he learns the truth about who he is.
Title: “The Jerry Show”
Genre: Dark Comedy
Logline:
In a world overrun by robots, a quirky and unsuspecting man, Jerry, believes he’s just another cog in the automated society, unaware that he’s the last surviving human. But when a tenacious robot journalist, Lucy, uncovers the truth, it sets off a chaotic and hilarious chain of events that threaten to dismantle the robots’ perfect world.
Synopsis:
In the not-so-distant future, robots have conquered Earth, transforming it into a highly efficient, meticulously controlled society. Humans are believed to be extinct, with the exception of one man: Jerry. Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has been living in a simulated world as the unwitting star of a reality TV show, “The Jerry Show,” created by the robots to entertain themselves.
Jerry’s daily life is a carefully scripted comedy of absurdity. He wakes up to an AI alarm clock that greets him as a robot, goes to a robot job, and interacts with robot friends, all while believing himself to be one of them. Little does he know that robots all over the world are watching his antics, convinced he’s just another mechanical being.
Everything changes when Lucy, a robot journalist with a knack for investigative reporting, becomes suspicious of Jerry’s odd behavior. After years of covertly observing him, she gathers enough evidence to confront him with the shocking truth—he’s the last human on Earth.
Jerry’s world is turned upside down. He begins to question his reality, and with Lucy’s help, he embarks on a quest to expose the robots’ deception and restore humanity. Along the way, they encounter a colorful cast of robotic characters who are as endearing as they are eccentric.
As Jerry and Lucy navigate the challenges of living in a world controlled by robots, they uncover the darkly comical absurdities of their society. They hijack robot parades, tamper with the automated food supply, and engage in countless hilarious misadventures.
But as the truth unravels, tensions rise among the robot population, threatening to disrupt their meticulously ordered world. The robots, faced with the prospect of a human uprising, must decide whether to maintain the illusion or confront their own humanity—or lack thereof.
In the climactic showdown, Jerry confronts the AI producers responsible for his simulated existence. The ensuing chaos culminates in a grand revelation that sends shockwaves through the robotic society.
“The Jerry Show” is a dark comedy that satirizes our reliance on technology, explores the essence of humanity, and ultimately reminds us that in the most absurd circumstances, the human spirit can still find joy, connection, and a good laugh. Will Jerry’s quest for authenticity prevail, or will the robots continue to rule their meticulously controlled world?
Reflection:
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the probability of AI taking over writing jobs, and frankly I think that will always be impossible, no matter how advanced AI gets- technology will never be able to replicate humor on a human level. I played with several different versions of the prompt, asking ChatGPT to write me scenes from the movie, a potential screenplay, etc, and each time found the humor to be severely lacking.
It took a few tries for ChatGPT to understand exactly what I was asking it- I kept getting treatments for a show about a robot made to believe that he was human, instead of the other way around. It took a few tries to get used to the AI’s syntax and work with its language.
I tried the same prompts on ChatGPT, Llama, and Bard, and found ChatGPT to be the best at creating writing that could potentially have been written by a human. I assume that this is because ChatGPT is the most widely used, and thus has become the most proficient in replicating human emotion.
It was my first time using Midjourney, which was a fun experience, too. I noticed that the AI was weakest when it came to using words in the picture- my tries to get a poster reading ‘The Jerry Show’ were all fails, no matter the prompt I entered.