AI: Again, Don't Get Out of Your Depth

Maybe you've heard about the Willy Wonka/Willy McDuff Experience in Glasgow, Scotland.

Of course, artificial intelligence seems to be sneaking into the narrative: The script for the hapless actors brought into this travesty, AI-developed. The advertising campaign imagery for this travesty, AI-developed.

Or so the critics say. Billy Coull, the event promoter and producer, says AI was brought in to do a bit of spit-and-polish on the products. But he's also used AI to pen sixteen books in 2023, so the stories say.

More on Coull and the background of the event here:

I think, however, this is a case where it's hard to blame AI. I'm not saying AI didn't make the experience worse, but the real fault lies with this poor fellow who used to to get completely out of his depth.

I've written about that before. AI as a tool has a lot of potential. But those using it have to know how to use it judiciously, and not get too far above their head that they can't touch the bottom of the subject matter they're in.

As I write in the link, AI can be useful for brainstorming, for filling little knowledge gaps, but the bigger the gaps get, the worse off the users of AI are -- because they won't be able to tell when AI is going astray, or when they're reaching far beyond their ability.

Having wonderful AI-generated marketing imagery is one thing. Using AI to develop a script that I have no idea how anyone thought it would get past the copyright on all things Willy Wonka is another. But getting all of that together and then not being able to pull together the event in the real world -- and who knows what this guy thought was going to happen opening day -- shows how far out of depth a person can get. And a person can get there without any help from artificial intelligence.