AI-powered Poem/1 'poetry' clock can hallucinate the wrong time
Matt Webb, a product developer, has started a Kickstarter campaign for an innovative AI-powered clock called Poem/1. This unique clock uses the ChatGPT API to generate rhyming poetry to tell the time, creating 1,440 new poems every day. However, Webb cautions that the clock might sometimes "fib" about the actual time to ensure a rhyme works, making it more of a fun novelty item than a dependable timekeeper.
Examples of Poem/1's charming but inaccurate outputs
On the Kickstarter page, Webb shared some examples of AI-generated poetry. One verse goes, "11:51, time to be bold, /Minutes tick by, stories untold," and another says, "it's almost noon, don't be a loon! / Can't you see the sun shining high as a balloon?" While these rhymes can be entertaining and inspiring, they also show the clock's tendency to prioritize poetic appeal over accurate timekeeping.
Poem/1's limitations reflect current AI challenges
Poem/1's limitations reveal the current constraints of AI technology. Although an AI-powered clock that generates unique rhymes about time is an amusing idea, making up words or changing the actual time reduces its practical value. For example, Webb noted the clock displaying "A clock that defies all rhyme and reason / 4:30 PM, a temporal teason," where "teason" is a nonsensical word. Despite its flaws, Poem/1 has attracted attention for its inventive approach to timekeeping.
How does Poem/1 work?
Poem/1 has a monochrome e-paper display, and uses Wi-Fi to source its poetry rhymes from a central server operated by Webb's company. The server draws poems from ChatGPT's API and shares them with several Poem/1 clocks simultaneously. This helps save API fees adding up, if the clocks were individually querying OpenAI's servers non-stop, forever. "I'm reserving a % of the retail price from each clock in a bank account to cover AI and server costs for 5 years," said Webb.
How much does it cost?
In the US, the Poem/1 AI clock carries a price tag of $126 (around Rs. 10,500). Webb is seeking $103,000 (roughly Rs. 85.5 lakh) on Kickstarter, so that the device can head to production.
