Fascinating bullshit from ChatGPT (unless Adam Savage can prove me wrong)

As part of a speculative gorilla marketing idea, I wanted to send some of my record-breaking world’s smallest playing cards to Adam Savage.

I’m a big fan of his and know he appreciates the challenges involved in making interesting things. I’ve even seen him make miniature things on his YouTube Channel before. I thought maybe he’d like my tiny playing cards, and if there’s small chance he gives them a shout-out to his 6.7 million subscribers that would be pretty cool.

`The smallest playing cards in the world`

Adam’s favourite card

I wondered if Adam Savage might have a favourite playing card. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this was something he’d mentioned in an interview or one of his videos at some point. If I could send him his favourite card, maybe there’d be more chance of him noticing.

So I turned to my omniscient virtual assistant, ChatGPT and asked: “Does Adam Savage have a favourite playing card?”

The answer was perfect. The MythBusters reference confirmed that that’s the Adam Savage I was referring to and he does have a favourite card: the four of clubs!

Just to be sure, I followed up.

Great! I had some references to check and I could also search myself for a mention of that specific card.

So I Googled <"Adam Savage" "4 of clubs">. And got no results.

OK, maybe Google hasn’t found the mention of the four of clubs, but it’ll be deep within one of those links.

So I checked the references that ChatGPT provided.

YouTube

The YouTube link in ChatGPT’s response was to a playlist called “Adam Savage's Favorite Tools”. Admitedly I didn’t watch all 121 videos in the list, but nothing in the titles suggest anything about playing cards. If ChatGPT was correct, surely it would’ve just linked to the one video containing the relevant reference anyway?

Mental Floss

The second link was to this Mental Floss article: “Adam Savage Talks the Last Episode of MythBusters and His Favorite Builds”.

No mention of the four of clubs, or of playing cards at all.

Reddit

The Reddit link was to an embedded YouTube video, again about some of Adam Savage’s favourite things. I did watch the entire seven minutes of that video. Nothing about cards.

More BS

I asked for some more clarification and references, but ChatGPT just doubled-down with complete rubbish.

It’s crazy how specific it is with its bullshit.

Take this bit:

This is confirmed by his involvement with products and designs that incorporate this card, such as the "Savage Industries EDC Four Bucket Bag" (Everyday Carry) (Savage Industries).

That bag is indeed a real bag that’s available on Adam Savage’s website. But as far as I can see it has absolutely nothing to do with playing cards. As I understand it, the “Four” in the name is just because it’s the fourth bag in his product line-up.

Another very precise and very wrong reference was to this interview with Adam Savage on a podcast. Helpfully, the transcript was provided so I didn’t have to listen to the whole hour of it. But, you guessed it, nothing about the four of clubs.

Prove me wrong

I’ve written about ChatGPT’s weaknesses before, and its utility, but this is another reminder that it’s not a very good tool for checking facts.

Obviously tools like ChatGPT are extremely powerful - and can be useful if used properly. There will be comments I’m sure about me using ChatGPT for the wrong things.

We need to be careful with these potent black boxes, and I think it’s worth sharing experiences like this one. Imagine if a human assistant came back with completely made up bullshit like this when given a question to answer. They wouldn’t last long in the job.

And maybe I’m wrong to doubt ChatGPT. Maybe I’m just a dumb human who didn’t understand what it was trying to tell me.

I’d love Adam Savage’s favourite playing card to actually be the four of clubs. I’m going to send him that particular card anyway because why not.

If you’re reading this, Adam, or if you’re not Adam but happen to know what his favourite playing card is, please let me know!