ENGL4837 ChatGPT Assignment: "The Great Fintelligence Discovery"

"The Great Fintelligence Discovery" Cover art by DALL-E 3 through ChatGPT

The Great Fintelligence Discovery

It started during the most boring science field trip ever: a beach cleanup. Jamie, Emma, and Marcus, three ninth-graders who excelled at avoiding work, had teamed up to "clean" the beach while mostly complaining about how unfair life was.

As they lazily picked through trash, Emma’s attention was caught by a shiny object bobbing just beneath the water’s surface. "Hey, what’s that?" she asked.

Marcus squinted. "Probably just a soda can."

But Emma’s curiosity got the better of her. Rolling up her jeans, she waded into the shallow water. "If it’s treasure, I’m quitting school."

She reached down, only to freeze when a pair of huge, round eyes blinked back at her. “Uh…guys?”

Jamie and Marcus hurried over. A strange creature floated in the water, about the size of a soccer ball, with shimmering, pearly scales and tentacle-like fins. It stared at them, looking almost… annoyed.

“Is that…a fish with an attitude?” Marcus whispered.

The creature suddenly puffed up its cheeks and spat out a stream of bubbles that sounded suspiciously like a raspberry.

Before they could react, it spoke, its voice a bubbly, gurgling tone. “Well, if you must know, I’m not ‘a fish.’ I’m a Nootlubian. And you’re standing in my living room.”

All three teens froze.

“Did that fish just—” Marcus stammered.

“Talk?!” Emma finished, her voice rising.

“Yes, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t scream like seagulls at a French fry convention,” the creature replied. “I’m Nibbles. Welcome to my habitat. Now, kindly remove your smelly feet from my space.”

Another Nootlubian popped up beside Nibbles, this one sporting a head fin that resembled a mohawk. “Who are these land blobs, and why do they smell like damp towels?”

“Teenagers,” Nibbles replied. “They’re cleaning up our trash. Which is ironic, considering humans invented trash.”

The teens exchanged sheepish glances. Jamie finally spoke. “So… you’re like alien fish?”

“Not fish,” Nibbles said, exasperated. “Nootlubians. An advanced aquatic civilization. But humans don’t notice anything underwater unless it’s shiny or can be turned into sushi.”

After a tense pause, Nibbles made them an offer: “If you promise to stop throwing junk into our ocean, we’ll teach you about our tech. Ever seen a clam-powered hovercraft? Didn’t think so.”

“Deal,” Emma said quickly, sensing the opportunity of a lifetime.

The teens thought their bizarre encounter would stay secret, but the next morning, the world exploded with news.

Emma saw it first in homeroom. “Uh, guys?” she whispered, holding up her phone. “We’re famous.”

The screen displayed a breaking news alert: “INTELLIGENT UNDERWATER SPECIES DISCOVERED: MEET THE NOOTLUBIANS!” The headline sat above a grainy, zoomed-in video of Nibbles blowing his infamous raspberry.

By lunch, reporters swarmed the school, helicopters buzzed overhead, and students were glued to their phones. “You met alien fish?” one kid asked Marcus in awe. “What do they eat? Kelp burgers?”

Nibbles and his friends became overnight celebrities. They gave live interviews via underwater drones, hilariously roasting humanity with clever insults. (“Humans are like clams without shells—messy, clueless, and constantly distracted by glowing rectangles.”)

World leaders scrambled to respond. The United Nations called an emergency summit to address the environmental crisis. For once, people actually listened. Emma explained during a televised interview, “If we don’t stop trashing their home, Nibbles says they’ll relocate to Mars. And honestly, can we handle being ghosted by fish aliens?”

Meanwhile, Jamie, Emma, and Marcus became the unofficial ambassadors between land and sea, with special invitations to Nootlubia. Their first trip included clam-powered hovercraft rides and bubble-blowing contests.

As for Nibbles, he launched his own underwater talk show, Bubble Up with Nibbles, though he still insisted humans owed him a new living room.

Analysis

My goal for this story was to see if ChatGPT could write good, comical, and casual stories. ChatGPT writing is prone to being very flowery and most people have to make it more concise themselves or ask it for help. I also thought that ChatGPT got mostly serious writing prompts, so I thought it might have a harder time with a more lighthearted tone. I think the hardest aspect for the AI was the comedic jokes. They started very childish and used a lot of superhero references. After stating I wanted it to be more mature, I stated that it didn’t automatically have to be vulgar. I think it understood what I was going for by the end. I also realized that sometimes a more recent command will trump an earlier one. For instance, my first command mentioned that it must be 600 words. However, after I had it revised to include more of the discovery aftermath, it made closer to 700 words. I had to ask again to trim it down. The dialogue sounded very natural and conversational, but I felt that there wasn’t much character development in the characters. This is probably because my prompt didn’t include any character traits. The lack of characterization shows that chatGPT needs a very specific prompt when it comes to fiction. Overall, I think chatGPT can tell a story successfully given the right prompt. But I think it’s lacking in creativity, especially when it comes to comedy. I think this makes sense though, because comedic taste is personal and built through one’s real-life experiences. The more broad or open-ended the story, the harder it will be for ChatGPT to fill in the gaps. In the future, I would like to see how it would do in storytelling if the narrative was more concrete and complex.

Sources

Story - ChatGPT

Cover Photo - DALL-E 3 through ChatGPT