AI alarm clock based on ChatGPT doesn’t actually know the time
Acts Not FactsA Kickstarter has been launched for an AI-powered alarm clock which is meant to tell you the time in a cute, whimsical poem – only there are two major problems.
Similar to ‘Smart’ devices, products that have ‘AI’ features have rapidly grown in popularity over the past year. Product developer Matt Webb has taken advantage of this trend by launching a funding drive for the “Poem/1” an alarm clock that is meant to tell the time by utilizing AI to create rhyming poetry that also contains the time. There are two major problems – the device hallucinates both the time and words of the English language.
The Poem/1 uses the ChatGPT API to produce short poems that also tell users what the time is. It was meant to be an artistic, whimsical idea, but inventor Matt Webb has admitted that ChatGPT regularly lies about what the actual time is, and makes up words in order to get a rhyming scheme to work.
AI clock is hallucinating words and time
In order to function as intended, the Poem/1 needs to display 1,440 unique poems in a day, to match the number of minutes in 24 hours. It uses an e-paper screen and connects to a central server, which uses ChatGPT’s API to generate the poems, pushing them out to every Poem/1 clock connected to the server.
Acts Not FactsMatt Webb warns potential Kickstarter backers: “Don’t rely on this clock in situations where timekeeping is vital.” The Poem/1 has been known to display an erroneous time in order to make its poetry lines work or hallucinate words that don’t exist in the English dictionary, such as ‘teason’ which appeared in one poem in an attempt to rhyme with reason.
The Poem/1 clock is priced at $126 on Kickstarter though it is difficult to imagine what use a clock that doesn’t accurately tell the time would be. Then again, perhaps modders will be able to find a good alternative use since Webb plans on publishing the full documentation and API when the Poem/1 Ships.
