Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for February 18, 2024

Never! AI will never come close to Pastis!

Can AI do painful puns?

“I got over my fear of dogs.” “How?” “Well . . . I only hang out with attractive women now!”

Let the ranting begin.

Artificial Intelligence will never be able to replace real stupidity.

AIs can draw better than Pastis. And they draw much better than I do, but no I don’t think they out pun Pastis.

Where did the bus stop go? I wanna follow the bus stop storyline!

Artificial intelligence could replace television ‘news’ anchors and the ‘reporters’ and ‘journalists’ of ALL purported ‘news’ gathering organizations, and the improvement would be immediately apparent.However, AI could NEVER come remotely close to replacing the pure idiocy shown by "sports casters’. (And AI could never replace all the dancing around and hand waving that are the trademarks of weather guessers everywhere).

Best PBS in years!

This is brilliant! Ever read something AI generated? It reads so stupidly correct that it is easy to identify. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, computers are diligent but they are so stupid.

Comics should be made to pass the I IS NOT MADE BY A ROBOT TEST by making it select all the fire hydrants and bridges and cars and all that.

Does AI have a potbelly?

I thought all these strips were written by AI… it’s hard to believe that the intelligence behind PBS has been created by nature :D

But can the AI make a good pun?

I hope the bus comes pretty soon!

No noses or mouths. AI is stupid.

I have a fear of elevators. I’m taking steps to avoid them.

So…..Ziggy has been written by AI all along?

We need to stop AI before it takes over the world.

It must’ve not been drawn by AI. Clearly.

We said most of the same things when BASIC language came on the scene.

“Oh, you!”

That was actually terrible.

Set the dogs on them!

Let’s go back to Pastis, please.

Well, I asked ChatGPT for a scenario for your strip and it came up with this: [Panel 1: Pig sitting at a table, holding a cup of coffee, looking perplexed]Pig: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

[Panel 2: Rat walks by, overhearing Pig’s question]Rat: “To get to the other side, of course.”

[Panel 3: Pig looks at Rat with a deadpan expression]Pig: “Wow, you just ruined the oldest joke in the book.”

[Panel 4: Rat smirks mischievously]Rat: “Well, maybe the chicken wanted to explore existentialism.”

[Panel 5: Pig looks utterly confused]Pig: “Existentialism? You mean, like, ‘Why am I here?’”

[Panel 6: Rat nods enthusiastically]Rat: “Exactly! Maybe the chicken was questioning the meaning of its own existence.”

[Panel 7: Pig scratches his head, still puzzled]Pig: “Huh. I never thought about it that way.”

[Panel 8: Goat enters the scene, overhearing the conversation]Goat: “Or maybe the chicken just needed to use the restroom.”

[Panel 9: Rat and Pig stare at Goat, dumbfounded]Rat: “Well, that’s one way to kill a philosophical discussion.”

[Panel 10: All three characters share a laugh together]Pig: “Leave it to Goat to bring us back to reality.”

[Panel 11: Rat turns to the audience with a sly grin]Rat: “And that, my friends, is the fine line between deep thought and poultry potty breaks.”

[End of comic strip]:D

Except for e drawings it sounds like a Pastis cartoon

CheatGPT produces Artificial Idiocy.

well, at least it was not some horrific pun or six painfully contrived panels leading up to some play on words creating a common phrase.

Now have AI write one that ends in a bad pun…the AI will realize that one entity that does that is bad enough and terminate itself. AI problem solved!

Before the Chinese company Alphabet purchased Google in 2015 the motto was “Don’t be evil”. Since then its technology has saturated devices with tracking software from its many integrated and ever running apps. And with the Asimov laws of robotic being purely fiction, those killer drones from the Terminator movies are becoming more and more of a reality. Even if you turn off Java Script, Location and turn off all the default setting to limit the sharing of personal information and preference tracking, they’re watching every click, download and letter typed even without a “history”. Anonymity is an impossibility

Very artificial it would seem.

remember it’s @ before # except after $

What I’m waiting for is natural intelligence….to replace natural stupidity (especially in the senate and house chambers)

I LUV THIS TOON!!

Great idea, it has been used for years to run the country.

ChatGPT came up with this gem:Panel 1:[Rat is sitting on a rock, talking to Pig who is holding a balloon]

Rat: You know, Pig, life is like a balloon.

Panel 2:[Pig looks confused]

Pig: How so?

Panel 3:[Rat pops the balloon with a pin]

Rat: It’s full of hot air, and sooner or later, it’s gonna burst.

Panel 4:[Pig looks disappointed as the balloon deflates]

Pig: That’s not very uplifting, Rat.

Rat: Life rarely is, my friend. Life rarely is.

One can tell if he’s Chatting with AI and learn it’s a fun game to mess it up. Sadly, I have not triggered an infinite software loop, nor smoking servers.

Is anyone else as worried about AI as I am?

Artificial Intelligence: I am not amused.

If AI has written a comic about AI writing a lame comic strip, we are all in trouble. Self-awareness…?

Reminds me of Super Funpack Comics.

I’m not worried. AI could never sink as low as Pastis.

Major fail! No Pastis Signature Pun.

Stephan cartooning as if he was an AI cartooning as if it was Stephan. Spiegel im spiegel, or what!

I run a pro writing service with 28 writers on my roster. This is familiar. Publishers have been inundated by poorly-written, AI-generated manuscripts to the point where they’re saying no to virtually everyone, just to keep the flood under control. I know a writer who queried ChatGPT to write a screenplay. He input a lot of necessary details. What he got back was a script missing the third act. Attempts at improvement got responses that seemed to him to mean: “Go away, I can’t be bothered.” I experimented with it, too. It may be able to pass a bar exam, but if you’re looking for something entertaining, AI isn’t it.

AI is so far just another tool. Artists have been adapting to new tools ever since the first time a caveman realized you could make marks on a rock by rubbing it with a charred stick.