This is an emergent story of four people - Franklin, Anika, Liliane, and Mateo - and the transformative power of friendship. The friends meet and have adventures in different places around the world, sharing experiences and creative endeavors, forming a deep and lasting bond.
It was written by ChatGPT (GPT-4 model, Mar 23 Version) in April 2023, with prompts by Peter Kaminski. There are about 10,000 words in the story. It is shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This website was built with Massive Wiki and Massive Wiki Builder. You can comment on these pages using Hypothesis - click the "<" in the upper right corner.
On this page, there is commentary by me (Pete), and links, which are the prompts I gave to ChatGPT. The links go to a page with ChatGPT's response. (Or if you like, you can view all chapters on one page.)
I wrote everything on this page, and the italicized prompts which are repeated on each chapter page, but ChatGPT wrote all the chapters. Afterwards, I wrote the titles and added the chapter/response numbers, and created this website.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a story, really; in my mind it was more like those old "choose your adventure" branching stories that had a choice to follow one branch or another at the end of each chapter. Except in this case, ChatGPT wrote each next chapter de novo.
Considering "Hot Air" as a story, while it does progress, it is not particularly well constructed or artfully written. That's because the story arc evolved from simple choices and paths I took, response by response. It is more of an experiment in driving ChatGPT in creative writing, rather than an attempt to write a real story. If ChatGPT and I tried to write a real story or novel, we might be able to do a better job.
I was impressed by ChatGPT's attention to detail, continuing to keep track of the people, their interests, and the events in the story
Overall, I find that ChatGPT doesn't write or create structure as well as the best human writers; but it's much better than bad writers, and as good as many. ChatGPT is also effortlessly creative, which I always find startling.
The story begins with an open-ended prompt:
The AI created Franklin and Anika, at the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. With the next prompt, I intended for the AI to describe another adventure for Franklin and Anika, but I wasn't specific enough...
... so the AI created Liliane and Mateo. I continue prompting for more adventures:
Maybe we should visit a couple of the friends' homes?
5. When the four next meet, it is at Anika's parents' house. Describe what happens.
Back to a shared adventure; this time the AI picks Kyoto:
We need a little conflict, I ask for a misadventure. And, let's create a partner for Liliane:
8. Describe a misadventure the four get into when they meet at Liliane's home with her wife.
Instead of adventures, how about describing different ways the friends might communicate?
9. Write a letter from Franklin to Mateo.
10. Write an email from on of the friends to another.
Now, follow on from the video call planning a trip. Try to shift the point of view from the friends, to other people meeting the friends.
13. Describe the New Zealand trip through the eyes of the people who the friends meet.
Meta: I didn't remember whose homes we've visited and whose we haven't; turns out ChatGPT didn't really either:
Since we left out Franklin, let's visit his home:
Okay, we have enough to sort of structure a story - let's have the AI take a turn at writing prompts now:
Go on to ask the AI to use the prompts it came up with. (titles by me)
18. Continue with prompt number 1. (Journeys of the heart - celebrating friendship and travel)
19. Which city was the gallery in? ("Journeys of the Heart" was in New York City)
20. Continue with prompt number 2. (Lost in Patagonia - a journey of challenge and friendship)
21. Continue with prompt number 3. (Dream retreat in southern France)
22. Continue with prompt number 4. (Through thick and thin - the friends' unbreakable bond)
23. Continue with prompt number 5. (Adapting to the changing landscape of our lives)
24. Continue with prompt number 6. (The Friendship Chronicles)
25. continue with prompt 7. (Revisiting our journeys with children and grandchildren)
26. continue with prompt 8. (A museum dedicated to the exploration of human connection, friendship, and creativity)
27. continue with prompt 9. (The Infinite Bond - A Lifetime of Friendship and Adventure)
28. continue with prompt 10. (The friends' love and legacy shine on)
Okay, let's start to wrap this up - can the AI make some titles?
The titles are good, but it doesn't remember all of its responses, so ultimately I wrote all the titles.
As an experiment, let's try to level up the story-telling a little:
30. Retell the visit to the art gallery, but use dialogue and settings to "show, not tell"
It does a decent job with some dialogue, although this doesn't seem to be a retelling of a previous chapter, but rather a new chapter.
And there you have it - an experiment with AI-generated hot air.