Is AI or Machine Learning ready? A bit of fun today.

This has almost nothing to do with hockey except that I was playing around with an on-line, generative AI video generator and got some silly results.

(I prefer to call it Machine Learning or LLMs rather than AI, but I often get blank stares from those not familiar with the area, so fine, AI).

I wanted to see if I could have OpenAI's Sora create a retro video of someone in their basement in the 80's get excited about a goal on TV.

(I have to say, the rooms themselves are quite well done, and for the most part, exaclty what I pictured for a 1985 basement rec-room, and the rooms stay pretty stable for all the animations.)

So I entered the following prompt:

prompt: a man in 1985 sits in an arm chair in a basement recreational room eating popcorn from a bowl. He wears a hockey jersey. In the hockey game on TV, a player scores. He leaps out of his chair with joy when this happens, spilling the popcorn

And got the following results:

Okay, a few comments here. The first video, the popcorn bowl in his hand just vanishes, and then the one on the floor vanishes to..... OMG. This made me laugh pretty hard. Plus I count at least 4 different jerseys on the ice, so that is some funky game!

In the second one, the guy is being extraordinarily careful to NOT spill the popcorn. And I really want to see that popcorn go flying!

So I updated the prompt hoping for better results:

prompt: a man and woman in 1985 sit in arm chairs in a basement recreational room eating popcorn from a bowl. they wear hockey jerseys. On the TV a hockey game is being broadcast, and a player scores a goal. They leap out of their chairs with joy when this happens, spilling the bowl of popcorn

In both of these, they don't look like they're watching the screens, even when there are two TVs! One has the popcorn already spilt a bit. And the other they seem to produce popcorn spontaneously as they join hands. No Bowl needed.

I love that the first one has them plopping into their seats to start watching, then leaping out after a few seconds.

The second one it seems to me the guy is kinda asking, should we celebrate? Then the woman agrees and off they go. And they seem to be rooting for the team '195'? Or maybe the player '195' that has been on two different teams?

Then trying one more tactic, trying to adjust the prompt to get that bowl of popcorn in the air:

prompt: a man and woman in 1985 sit in arm chairs in a basement recreational room, both watching a hockey game on tv. they wear hockey jerseys. On the TV a player scores a goal. They leap. out of their chairs with joy when this happens, spilling the bowl of popcorn they were holding in their hands onto the floor

Okay, it seems to be going downhill. The first one, they've somehow gotten a flat screen in 1985, I guess because that tube TV is on the fritz with the static. They seem to more be celebrating each other as they tell some story with asynchronous celebrations. They DON'T leave their chairs at all. They've got opposing jerseys, so maybe he's actually unhappy about the goal, that could be it? But most troubling for me is that stable mass of popcorn on his lap.

We want to see it go flying, am I right?

Maybe the second one? Nope. The bowl of popcorn is absorbed into her sleeve in the first few frames. Again, two different teams' jerseys, an odd pause before the full celebration, so I'm thinking the puck hit a post, they started celebrating too soon, but then the rebound got stuffed in? Dunno. Anyhow, I'm adopting these dance moves for my future goal celebrations.

Okay, one last attempt with Sora: prompt: a man and woman in 1985 sit in basement recreational room, watching a hockey game on tv. they wear matching hockey jerseys. the woman holds a bowl of popcorn in her hands. They suddenly, simultaneously leap out of their seats with joy. the bowl of popcorn she is holding goes flying into the air, the popcorn scattering everywhere. It is very important that she spills the bowl of popcorn when she jumps up to celebrate

Well, we get already spilt popcorn in the first one, and they sort-of kick some of it up as they dance around, although it seems to jump up more from loose floor boards than from them kicking it. Plus we must be watching some sort of warm up because only one team seems to be on the ice.

And then the last one. EEEEEK. Well, we finally get some popcorn flying, from the guy, which I guess still meets the prompt because they both seemingly turn into clones of the poor woman who comes in leaping and and then is pulled into some horrifying wormhole!

Okay, too disturbing, so I tried with one of the new GenAI services, Kling.ai: prompt: a man and woman in 1985 sit in basement recreational room, watching a hockey game on tv. they wear matching hockey jerseys. the woman holds a bowl of popcorn in her hands. They suddenly, simultaneously leap out of their seats with joy. the bowl of popcorn she is holding goes flying into the air, the popcorn scattering everywhere. It is very important that she spills the bowl of popcorn when she jumps up to celebrate

Ha! Um. No.

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