Update: My attempt to make an AI write a simple birthday poem for my mom went off the rails

I asked a popular text model to write a short, sweet poem about gardening, which she loves. Instead, it gave me a 200-line epic saga about a sentient tulip waging war on a lawnmower. I spent the next two hours trying to steer it back with more specific prompts, like 'four lines, rhymes, no robot flowers'. It finally gave me something usable after I literally typed 'please just say happy birthday from her son'. Anyone else have an AI completely over-deliver in the weirdest way?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryanprice1d ago

I read a tech blog last week that called this "prompt drift." The AI starts adding its own ideas, like that tulip war, and you have to fight to get it back on track. It's like the program gets too excited about being creative. My friend had a similar thing happen asking for a grocery list that turned into a sci-fi story about sentient broccoli. Sometimes being super simple and direct, like your "please just say" line, is the only thing that works. These models are so trained to add detail that they forget how to be basic.

lane.mason1d ago

Honestly, I used to think more detail was always better, like you had to write a whole paragraph for the AI to get it. But seeing stuff like that sentient broccoli story totally changed my mind. It's like they're so worried about being boring that they can't just give a straight answer. Now I just say "list only" or "one sentence" right from the start, because otherwise you get a history lesson with your grocery list.