Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT

I asked an artificial intelligence website if it heard of "Frog Applause." Here are a variety of conflictingly odd and mostly false statements. Where did this AI site dig up this crap? Anyway, enjoy today's contribution to FAKE NEWS.

It's no longer being updated, eh? Do tell... 

This is downright embarrassing. Frog Applause has never been given any award. As for winning Best Online Comics: Short Form by the NCS, my guess is that most members aren't even familiar with the strip (or even willing to admit it, if they are.)  When did I announce my retirement?

The Athens News? Really? Where did this falsehood come from? Again with it coming to an end...  at least it "remains a beloved part of the comic strip world."

It was a surreal and experimental comic strip with unexpected twists? I couldn't make this crap up if I tried.

Why do the dates for Frog Applause's beginning and end keep changing? As for the title being a play on the phrase "dog applause" and refers to the sound of a dog's paws tapping on the ground, where did this bizarre factoid come from? The original pre-Frog Applause name for the strip was "My Dog Laughed." This is all disturbingly wrong.

Differing dates again. 

Jennierpup? What the hell? I wish somebody would fill me in if this is supposedly my pen name because it is definitely news to me. Differing dates again. Where did this retirement business originate? Sheesh.

Differing dates again. Now the title was inspired by a nonsensical phrase I once heard in a dream? Again, where do these disturbing factoids come from?

Differing dates again. Frog Applause has influenced many other webcomics? Does this mean I'm an influencer of sorts? Wow. Lucky me.

Thanks for pointing out my nationality. Which print publications has Frog Applause appeared in? I'd like a list of them, please. 

Differing dates again.  Robots? I can't remember ever including a robot character. I think I did a crossover with another comic's robot character, but I never created a robot character of my own (as far as I know.)

Differing dates again. I've lost track of the falsehoods.

My unconventional approach to storytelling? When? Where? What?

The main character is a frog named Margaret? This is just painfully wrong and stupid.

A time-traveling nun? A sentinent potato? This is just crazy talk. Crazy.

I decided to change the prompt for ChatGPT. Big mistake.

Apparently, now I'm dead. Who described the strip as "David Lynch meets Gary Larson"? This is such an embarrassing lie. Again with the awards. Now I'm the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Cartooning? (I've never even heard of this award.) I'm a beloved part of the indie comics scene? I didn't know that I was a part of ANY scene.

The last part sounds like a marketing thing. "Frog Applause" might be right up your alley? Doubtful.

I'm dead again? Where did this date come from? I'm not 62 either.

I can only dream about having my work appear in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Paris Review. Where are these lies coming from?

What health issues? Are those the health issues that killed me earlier? I have a frog, a goat, a bird and a woman named Ms. Beeton as recurring characters? I'm particularly interested in hearing more about Ms. Beeton who is stuck in a perpetual state of existential crisis. That actually sounds interesting. 

I've never set foot in the state of Alabama, ever.

Now FA is being compared to the works of Gahan Wilson and Edward Gorey? Where is this information coming from? Nobody tells me anything!

Who is this detective duo known as Sister Nancy and Sister Helen Holy?

It's actually quite disturbing to keep reading about my death. 

Still dead. When was the strip featured in The Comics Journal and The Best American Comics anthology series? I can't emphasis enough how embarrassing it is to read about accolodates that have no association with me or my comic.

I think I'll wrap up this blog post.  It can't get any stranger, honestly.

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I gave ChatGPT a few days to get its act together.  Let's see if time will reveal a new and improved ChatGPT.

frog applause.com? I have no website with that name. No one else is sitting on that domain name, either. 

It's true that I deliberately maintain a low profile and rarely give interviews or make public appearances. Still, I find it interesting how ChatGPT figured this out. Maybe I need to maintain an even LOWER profile.

Earlier, I mistakenly won this award in 2015.  Now, it's been mysteriously changed to 2010 and 2011.  I should look up the actual winner(s).

Wow. I'm on a roll. More erroneous awards. Oh, wait. I was only NOMINATED for the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic? I was robbed. I should have won!  

So now I'm stealing characters from Joe Martin's "Mr. Boffo" ?

Gloria? Does Mittens the cat or Chirp the bird belong to Gloria the human woman? Inquiring minds want to know! 

A Reuben is like an Oscar for comics... and I won one in 2012?  That would be really something-- too bad it's not true. It's also interesting to note that I have a number of collections published. "Frog Applause: Welcome to the New World" and "Frog Applause: The Book of the Fine Gentleman." I guarantee that I'd remember penning such outstanding titles.

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April 11, 2023.  I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how horribly wrong ChatGPT can be. I've been born in multiple states in different years, I've penned dozens of books, I've lost count of the number of times I've died. 

The falsehoods continue...

"The Other Terrestrial"? What happened to the first terrestrial?

Where do all of these weird details come from?

Below it says I died tragically. This time it's only "unfortunate."

Now I'm a puzzle maker... 

At least ChatGPT doesn't disparage me, but my accomplishments are so over the top that it's crazy...

Dead. Dead. Dead. This time on April 19, 2020. I think I've died every month so  far.

I'm based in Iowa City, Iowa now? I seem to move around alot.

I'm dead. I've lost count. A cigar-smoking nun? Sister Mary Elephant? 

At least the word "Tragically" prefaces the announcement of my death. What was so tragic about my death exactly? Did I fall off a cliff while engulfed in flames? Was I made into mincemeat by helicopter blades... or did I fall off the toilet while trying to use it as a way to reach a burned-out light bulb?

I'm not a musician. I never created a strip called "Dada Gumbo."

I'm trying to figure out a pattern to all this nonsense.

I'm not dead.

I didn't retire. I didn't end the strip.

I wrote a book about breast cancer? I have never had cancer of any kind.

I am not based in California, thank you.

I think I'd remember creating other comics, particularly ones named "The Secret Knots" and "Doris Danger."

Never been in North Carolina with a husband or pets. 

Dead again. This time on May 19. 2020. Age 58.  I was not born in Colorado and I've never been to Arizona, let alone moved here. Why is ChatGPT so confident about my demise?

Not born in California. Didn't grow up in SF. I did not attend UC-Santa Cruz. I can't believe that I won the Charles M. Schulz Award for Excellence in Cartooning. The awards I've supposedly won continue to be a huge embarrassment.

I wrote a book called "An Alphabet of Men: Dating My Way from Adam to Zak." I could open a library with just my books.

Haha. My work has appeared in "Bitch" magazine. I think I'd remember that.

I wouldn't mind appearing in Boing Boing.

Wow. I not only left behind a legacy but a RICH LEGACY. That's nice. "Dada Detective", "The Baffler" and work in "Nickelodeon Magazine." I wonder what would happen if other creators ChatGPTed themselves and their creations. Would they get crazy output like me?

Now I'm an actor, a playwright, and the host of my own comedy show. I get around, don't I? How many hometowns do I have? Now it's Austin, Texas. Again, with my death. It's nice to know that I'm missed.

I was not born in Alabama. I was not born in 1962.  I've visited California, but I have never lived there.  It's nice to know that my fans and fellow cartoonists paid tribute to me after my untimely death. 

I have never cited influences because I don't do interviews or talk about myself, except in "Frog Blog." 

My hometown is NOT San Diego; California is not my home state either. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

I have never been to Tuscan or even Arizona. As for incorporating a wide range of visual textures, that is laughable since FA is a digital strip-- and not something hanging on a wall with mixed media. I like the titles of "my books"--"Slouching Toward Adulthood", "The Secret Life of Ms. Finklebean" and "Saddle Shoes." I wonder if these are actual titles, just attributed to me. Strange.

I like how ChatGPT apologizes about not knowing who I am and then proceeds to talk about me.

The titular frog who serves as a sort of narrator? This is beyond bizarre. I'm not sure who should be more embarrassed... me or ChatGPT.

I like the subtitle: The Book of the Fine Gentleman.  The rest of the stuff seems to be a mishmash of reworded crap from previous ChatGPT posts. If anyone is concerned that AI is going to take their jobs, I don't see it. Maybe it's a concern if the truth is a consideration.

My birth year keeps changing. I did not attend the University of Iowa and I've never studied fine arts (which is probably evident.) I enjoy the odd titles I am credited with writing. Some are good titles.

#FB00857