As we reported a few weeks ago, artificial intelligences are the revolution of the decade. Led by OpenAI’s AI: ChatGPT, artificial intelligences have ignited a flame that is spreading rapidly in the technology industry. In just a few months, we have seen companies such as Meta, Google or Microsoft (one of OpenAI’s main investors) create their own AIs, either with their own language models or based on ChatGPT and GPT-4.
And, as is natural with any fad, trend or “thing everyone is talking about”, South Park has echoed the “AI revolution” through an episode where it explores this theme with its unmistakable and acid sense of humor, creating a satire on the use of ChatGPT and other text chatbots.
With the title “Deep Learning”, the new episode of South Park, aired on March 8, refers to the type of machine learning and artificial intelligence that tries to mimic human learning. That is, the process followed by text AIs such as ChatGPT, the “protagonist” of this story.
Through its particular sense of humor, the latest episode of South Park addresses, among other issues, a current problem for teachers and educators: the role of ChatGPT as a tool to help students do their homework. And the fact is that text-generating chatbots have the power to create all kinds of compositions, including homework and assignments submitted by teachers.
In one of the moments from the episode posted by the series’ YouTube account, we can see how Stan uses ChatGPT to try to solve a problem with Wendy, his girlfriend, by asking her to generate a story with a series of characteristics. We then see how the story created by the AI comes to life, with a robotic voice narrating what happens. The creators take the opportunity to criticize the corporatist use of artificial intelligences through Stan’s speech to his classmates and teachers.
The icing on the cake of the South Park episode is the credits themselves, which state that the episode was apparently “written by Trey Parker and ChatGPT”. At the moment, we do not know to what extent this is real or not, as it could be a simple joke, but it could also mean that at least part of the script is the work of OpenAI’s AI. If so, will we see more series and movie scripts made by AI?
