{"id":12811,"date":"2024-01-03T16:37:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/a-piece-of-performance-poetry-an-absurd-decade-old-twitter-account-can-teach-us-a-lot-about-ai\/"},"modified":"2024-01-03T16:37:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T15:37:27","slug":"a-piece-of-performance-poetry-an-absurd-decade-old-twitter-account-can-teach-us-a-lot-about-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/a-piece-of-performance-poetry-an-absurd-decade-old-twitter-account-can-teach-us-a-lot-about-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A piece of performance poetry\u2019: an absurd, decade-old Twitter account can teach us a lot about AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, @Horse_ebooks functioned like today\u2019s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the account<\/p>\n

More than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework<\/a>, help you make dinner<\/a> or pass the bar exam<\/a>, there was @Horse_ebooks. The primitive predecessor to today\u2019s chatbot renaissance began as a Twitter account in 2010, tweeting automated excerpts from ebooks that, decontextualized, took on unexpected and strangely poetic meanings.<\/p>\n

Purportedly a spambot, the account surfaced quotes from ebooks that went viral for their absurdist fragments \u2013 phrases like \u201cHello saxophone,\u201d \u201cCOULD THIS BE THE\u201d, and \u201cToday we are lucky to be talking\u201d. It amassed more than 200,000 followers at its peak and now, despite being inactive for a decade, the account still holds 131,000 followers. Its<\/strong> most memorable quip \u2013 \u201ceverything happens so much\u201d \u2013 still resonates today.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nBy reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, @Horse_ebooks functioned like today\u2019s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the account
\nMore than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar exam, there was @Horse_ebooks. The primitive predecessor to today\u2019s chatbot renaissance began as a Twitter account in 2010, tweeting automated excerpts from ebooks that, decontextualized, took on unexpected and strangely poetic meanings.
\nPurportedly a spambot, the account surfaced quotes from ebooks that went viral for their absurdist fragments \u2013 phrases like \u201cHello saxophone,\u201d \u201cCOULD THIS BE THE\u201d, and \u201cToday we are lucky to be talking\u201d. It amassed more than 200,000 followers at its peak and now, despite being inactive for a decade, the account still holds 131,000 followers. Its most memorable quip \u2013 \u201ceverything happens so much\u201d \u2013 still resonates today. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, @Horse_ebooks functioned like today\u2019s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the account More than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar exam, there was @Horse_ebooks. The primitive predecessor to …<\/p>\n

\u2018A piece of performance poetry\u2019: an absurd, decade-old Twitter account can teach us a lot about AI<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}