For today’s edition of “Deal of the Day,” here are some of the best deals we stumbled on while browsing the web this morning! Please note that Geeks are Sexy might get a small commission from qualifying purchases done through our posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
–1minAI: Lifetime Subscription – Why choose between ChatGPT, Midjourney, GoogleAI, and MetaAI when you could get them all in one tool? – $234.00 $39.99
Stories define people – they shape our relationships, cultures and societies. Unlike other skills replaced by technology, storytelling has remained uniquely human, setting people apart from machines. But now, even storytelling is being challenged. Artificial intelligence, powered by vast datasets, can generate stories that sometimes rival, or even surpass, those written by humans.
Creative professionals have been among the first to feel the threat of AI. Last year, Hollywood screenwriters protested, demanding – and winning – protections against AI replacing their jobs. As universityprofessors, we’ve seen student work that seems suspiciously AI-generated, which can be frustrating.
Beyond the threat to livelihoods, AI’s ability to craft compelling, humanlike stories also poses a societal risk: the spread of misinformation. Fake news, which once required significant effort, can now be produced with ease. This is especially concerning because decades of research have shown that people are often more influenced by stories than by explicit arguments and entreaties.
We set out to study how well AI-written stories stack up against those by human storytellers. We found that AI storytelling is impressive, but professional writers needn’t worry – at least not yet.
The power of stories
How do stories influence people? Their power often lies in transportation – the feeling of being transported to and fully immersed in an imagined world. You’ve likely experienced this while losing yourself in the wizarding world of Harry Potter or 19th-century English society in “Pride and Prejudice.” This kind of immersion lets you experience new places and understand others’ perspectives, often influencing how you view your own life afterward.
When you’re transported by a story, you not only learn by observing, but your skepticism is also suspended. You’re so engrossed in the storyline that you let your guard down, allowing the story to influence you without triggering skepticism in it or the feeling of being manipulated.
Given the power of stories, can AI tell a good one? This question matters not only to those in creative industries but to everyone. A good story can change lives, as evidenced by mythical and nationalist narratives that have influenced wars and peace.
Storytelling can be powerfully influential – especially if people sense the human behind the words.georgeclerk/E+ via Getty Images
Studying whether AI can tell compelling stories also helps researchers like us understand what makes narratives effective. Unlike human writers, AI provides a controlled way to experiment with storytelling techniques.
Head-to-head results
In our experiments, we explored whether AI could tell compelling stories. We used descriptions from published studies to prompt ChatGPT to generate three narratives, then asked over 2,000 participants to read and rate their engagement with these stories. We labeled half as AI-written and half as human-written.
Our results were mixed. In three experiments, participants found human-written stories to be generally more “transporting” than AI-generated ones, regardless of how the source was labeled. However, they were not more likely to raise questions about AI-generated stories. In multiple cases, they even challenged them less than human-written ones. The one clear finding was that labeling a story as AI-written made it less appealing to participants and led to more skepticism, no matter the actual author.
Why is this the case? Linguistic analysis of the stories showed that AI-generated stories tended to have longer paragraphs and sentences, while human writers showed more stylistic diversity. AI writes coherently, with strong links between sentences and ideas, but human writers vary more, creating a richer experience. This also points to the possibility that prompting AI models to write in more diverse tones and styles may improve their storytelling.
These findings provide an early look at AI’s potential for storytelling. We also looked at research in storytelling, psychology and philosophy to understand what makes a good story.
We believe four things make stories engaging: good writing, believability, creativity and lived experience. AI is great at writing fluently and making stories believable. But creativity and real-life experiences are where AI falls short. Creativity means coming up with new ideas, while AI is designed to predict the most likely outcome. And although AI can sound human, it lacks the real-life experiences that often make stories truly compelling.
Closing in?
It’s too early to come to a definitive conclusion about whether AI can eventually be used for high-quality storytelling. AI is good at writing fluently and coherently, and its creativity may rival that of average writers. However, AI’s strength lies in predictability. Its algorithms are designed to generate the most likely outcome based on data, which can make its stories appealing in a familiar way. This is similar to the concept of beauty in averageness, the documented preference people have for composite images that represent the average face of a population. This predictability, though limiting true creativity, can still resonate with audiences.
For now, screenwriters and novelists aren’t at risk of losing their jobs. AI can tell stories, but they aren’t quite on par with the best human storytellers. Still, as AI continues to evolve, we may see more compelling stories generated by machines, which could pose serious challenges, especially when they’re used to spread misinformation.
Imagine growing up believing trees are nature’s perfect little oxygen factories, silently working away to purify the air for us—kind of like Earth’s unpaid interns. But then one day, a dude named Andrew, a subscriber of PBS’s Reactions Youtube channel and an employee at an unmentioned city engineering department, crashes your tree-hugging dreams with a question that’s downright SCANDALOUS: “Wait… can trees actually hurt air quality?”
Andrew, trapped in a heated office debate with a coworker who told him the unthinkable, took to Google to verify the information, and he discovered something that made him question everything—like that time we found out Pluto isn’t a planet. Turns out, trees aren’t just mindlessly giving us fresh air—they’re also throwing a little something called isoprene into the mix. And this is where the plot thickens.
The Chemistry of Trees: Friend or Foe?
Yes, trees do release a compound known as isoprene, and it’s not just a few rogue species—roughly a third of all seed-producing plants emit isoprene. The surprise? Isoprene is the second-most emitted volatile organic compound (VOC) after methane, making up a sizable chunk of the emissions we usually associate with industrial pollution.
But what exactly is isoprene, and why is it a concern? Isoprene is a simple molecule composed of carbon and hydrogen, and it’s actually a building block for A LOT of vital substances like vitamin A, rubber, and even testosterone and estrogen! While essential for various biological processes, when released into the air, isoprene undergoes a series of reactions, especially in hot, sunny weather. The problem isn’t isoprene itself—it’s what happens to it in the atmosphere.
Isoprene: A Hidden Polluter?
When isoprene gets released into the air, it reacts with nitrogen oxides (NO and NO₂), typically produced by burning fossil fuels like those from car engines or power plants. The resulting chemical reaction produces ground-level ozone, which, while vital in the upper atmosphere for blocking UV rays, is dangerous when it lingers close to the surface. Ground-level ozone irritates the lungs and can worsen respiratory conditions like asthma, especially in cities during hot weather.
It turns out that on particularly hot days, trees release more isoprene, which means even more potential for ozone formation. So in urban areas, trees can inadvertently worsen air quality, despite their leafy, peaceful appearance.
Are Trees Secret Supervillains?
Before you rush outside to shake your fist at your local oak, let’s slow down. Isoprene isn’t that toxic—more like the tree’s version of a harmless prank. Yes, it’s labeled as “possibly carcinogenic” (at least for lab rats), but the odds of you getting isoprene poisoning from a tree are about as likely as being hit by lightning while simultaneously eaten by a shark. So, you know, not worth packing your bags and moving to the desert just yet.
The problem only arises when tree emissions mix with human-made pollution. So, are trees causing all our air quality problems? Nah. They’re more like accidental accomplices in a heist planned by car exhaust and industrial smoke. In other words, it’s not time to chop down all the trees and start wearing oxygen tanks—just maybe be a little more mindful of all the stuff in the air.
Scientific Citations Aren’t the Whole Story
One key takeaway here is that science, while grounded in fact, is also subject to how you frame the question. Andrew’s coworker wasn’t technically wrong—trees can contribute to air pollution in very specific circumstances—but that doesn’t mean trees are inherently bad for us. As the video below points out, science often finds what it’s looking for. If you search for reasons to blame trees for air quality problems, you’ll find them, just like you’ll find injuries caused by seat belts if you look hard enough. But that doesn’t mean seat belts—or trees—are harmful in a broader sense.
In the end, the real question we should be asking isn’t “Are trees bad?” but rather, “Are trees in cities good or bad for humans overall?” Yes, trees release isoprene, but they also provide shade, help reduce heat, support biodiversity, and yes, they still do absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
So, before you let your coworker’s scientific citations make you rethink your love for nature, remember that trees are just one piece of a much larger environmental puzzle. Rather than cutting them down, maybe we should focus on reducing the other pollutants that turn their emissions into something harmful.
Now you can watch the video. The host, George Zaidan, is not only knowledgeable, he’s also hilarious!
Watch as action figures from The Last of Us, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, and Horizon Forbidden West battle each other before teaming up to face a fiery Abomination! A cool stop motion animation promoting the new Playstation action figures from Spin Master.
For today’s edition of “Deal of the Day,” here are some of the best deals we stumbled on while browsing the web this morning! Please note that Geeks are Sexy might get a small commission from qualifying purchases done through our posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
–1minAI: Lifetime Subscription – Why choose between ChatGPT, Midjourney, GoogleAI, and MetaAI when you could get them all in one tool? – $234.00 $39.99
Imagine a world where the beloved Golden Girls never went off the air! In this fun concept show by animator Mike Hollingsworth (BoJack Horseman, Tuca & Bertie, Inside Job), we’re whisked into the year 3033, where Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia are living their best lives in the cloud city of Skyami.
After discovering the Fountain of Youth at their Miami senior facility, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose became immortal, while Sophia’s consciousness was uploaded into a robot after her passing in 2875.
Now, Dorothy just divorced her 17th husband, a squid-like alien named Stan, who’s dating a galaxy attendant 1,089 years younger! Blanche charms her way through the universe, and Rose still shares tales from St. Olaf, even after the city’s unfortunate end during World War 9.
With original audio from the episode “Stan Takes a Wife” from 1989, this animation brings back the laughter and friendship we all love.
Forget the charming rogues from the movies—real pirates weren’t exactly handing out invitations to a life of adventure. More like a ticket to being brutally thrown overboard! Sure, the hooks, peg legs, and eyepatches seem like fun pirate accessories, but they were basically the result of pirate “team-building exercises” gone terribly wrong. Captains kept their crews in line with the threat of painful, gruesome deaths—and if you were unlucky enough to be caught by them? Let’s just say their idea of “hospitality” involved a lot less rum and a lot more torture. Weird History is here to remind us that swashbuckling on the high seas was less ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and more ‘Pirates of the Please Don’t Kill Me!’
