If you are not familiar with Mad Libs, let my old pal ChatGPT introduce you.

Prompt
Define “Mad Libs,” the fill-in-the-blank word game. Use the year in which it was invented.

ChatGPT
Mad Libs is a playful word game that originated in 1953. In this game, players fill in missing words in a given passage to create amusing and often nonsensical stories. By providing various types of words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, players inject their own creativity and humor into the narrative. The result is a hilarious and unpredictable tale that brings laughter and entertainment to gatherings and social events.

I began thinking about Mad Libs again because I wanted to come up with creative ways to make ChatGPT perform tricks like an AI circus animal. So, let’s see if The Machine can do Mad Libs.

Prompt
Write a 100-word description about a man trimming his mustache before a mirror. Use a lot of adjectives and action verbs.

The Machine’s response is integrated in the following prompt, along with the rules of engagement to “fill in the blanks.” The Greek alphabet is used instead of the words ChatGPT returned.

Prompt
1. Remember the following paragraph: “In morning's gentle light, a ALPHA gentleman trims his mustache before a grand mirror. With precision and finesse, he wields a BETA to every unruly strand. The mirror reflects his serene countenance and GAMMA. His once wild mustache now stands as a testament to his DELTA. Each stroke is a symphony of grace, shaping suave sophistication. The man is EPSILON committed to refinement and it shines through every meticulously trimmed hair.”

2. Revise using this exact wording but change five words and five words only: ALPHA = adjective, BETA = noun, GAMMA = body part, DELTA = profession, EPSILON = adverb

3. The words you select should be totally random and have nothing to do with the context of the paragraph.

Hilarious and unpredictable are a crapshoot, just like Mad Libs.

ChatGPT
"In morning's gentle light, a VIBRANT gentleman trims his mustache before a grand mirror. With precision and finesse, he wields a SCULPTURE to every unruly strand. The mirror reflects his serene countenance and CHEST. His once wild mustache now stands as a testament to his ASTRONOMER. Each stroke is a symphony of grace, shaping suave sophistication. The man is ELEGANTLY committed to refinement and it shines through every meticulously trimmed hair."

ChatGPT even kept the capitalizations. And I made ChatGPT jump through the hoop a dozen more times, each with different answers. The Machine regurgitated multiple iterations following these brief instructions:

Prompt 
Choose different words.

Afterword

After some experimenting, I’m convinced that The Machine will help writers, not hurt them. When approaching a new subject or expanding a one-dimensional character, it’s the writer’s creativity that fills the blank page with something engaging to read. I’m starting to think about creative tasks for these upstart AI tools, not as generators of raw text. The more I play with them, the more I see them as super-smart cousins to the thesaurus or rhyming dictionary. Once a first draft is complete or an article needs a tweak, these are tools I can use to help polish my writing. I’m the person who chooses whether or not to use them.

So, to fill in the blank for the title of this post, thank you ChatGPT.