What Happens When You Ask AI to Write a Poem About Cats?

Virayo
March 23, 2023

Like a lot of agencies, Virayo is interested in learning more about AI-generated content. So we recently experimented with Microsoft’s OpenAI-powered Bing chatbot to see what it could do. Find out what we learned through this process.

Bing — the search engine that has always existed in Google’s shadow — is now making headlines, thanks to Microsoft’s investment in AI. The new-and-improved Bing uses a combination of OpenAI’s large language model and Bing’s web indexing information to deliver highly relevant and annotated search results. Bing also has an AI-powered chatbot that provides detailed search results in seconds and allows users to ask follow-up questions.

We asked the Bing chatbot to write a poem about cats who live in Indianapolis. This is what it wrote (in just a few seconds):

In Indianapolis, cats roam free, They climb and play in every tree, They purr and meow and chase their prey, And sleep in the sun all day.

 

They roam the streets and alleys too, And sometimes they’ll come visit you, They’ll rub their heads against your leg, And purr and meow and beg.

 

They’re happy cats, these Indianapolis felines, And they’ll make you smile with their playful designs, So if you see one, give it a pat, And let it know it’s welcome where it’s at.

Pretty cute, right? One member of our team wondered if the content would be mostly the same if we gave Bing the same instructions, but with a different location. So we tried swapping out “Indianapolis” for “Zagreb.” Bing wrote:

In Zagreb, cats roam the streets, They’re sleek and sly and oh so neat, They climb and play and chase their prey, And sleep in the sun all day.

 

They’re happy cats, these Zagreb felines, And they’ll make you smile with their playful designs, So if you see one, give it a pat, And let it know it’s welcome where it’s at.

Definitely some duplicate content there. But could Bing create something unique if we gave it more information?

We tried again. The instructions were:

Please write a poem about two cat roommates named Samantha and Fred who live in a bungalow on the east side of Indianapolis, in the 46201 ZIP Code. Mention some of the local places they like to go and their favorite places to shop.

The chatbot wrote:

Samantha and Fred, two cats so fine, Live in a bungalow, on the east side of the line. They love to roam, and explore the town, And visit their favorite places, all around.

 

They like to shop at the local pet store, And pick up some treats, and toys galore. They also like to visit the park, And play with other cats, until it gets dark.

 

Samantha and Fred, they’re quite the pair, And everyone knows them, everywhere. They’re the talk of the town, and everyone’s friend, And they’ll be together, until the very end.

OK, that poem is cute, too. But we wondered why Bing didn’t mention any businesses in the 46201 ZIP Code, or street names, or the proper name of one of the area’s three parks.

Maybe Bing doesn’t know that including details makes content unique?

Maybe Bing doesn’t care about originality.

The point is that AI is not a substitute for editorial intuition. Storytelling — whether you’re writing SEO content for a SaaS company or a poem about cats — is a talent that takes years to develop.

What’s Next?

In our next post on AI-generated content, we’ll use an AI content platform to create a blog post and show you what it looks like before and after human editing.

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