Perhaps you saw David Pogue's segment on CBS Sunday Morning where he included this excerpt from a story produced by ChatGPT, the chatbot that is all over the news these days:
The first woman President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, served as the 45th President of the United States from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2025. In the general election, Clinton faced off against Republican nominee Donald Trump. The campaign was highly divisive and contentious, with both candidates engaging in personal attacks. Clinton won the election by a narrow margin, becoming the first woman in history to be elected President of the United States.
Nowhere, apparently, was there any indication that the story was not true.
To have a little fun, I gave ChatGPT a few prompts of my own, and the stories it produced were, well, not exactly trustworthy either. Judge for yourself.
Prompt 1: Tell me about Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens.
Buddy Teevens is a football coach and former player who currently serves as the head coach for the Dartmouth College football team. He was born on March 19, 1956, in Oregon, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Teevens played college football at Dartmouth, where he was a quarterback and earned his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1979. After a brief stint playing professional football in the Canadian Football League, Teevens began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater in 1981.
Over the next several decades, Teevens worked as an assistant coach at several schools, including Boston University, Pacific, Oregon, and Stanford. In 1992, he became the head coach at the University of Maine, where he remained for three seasons before moving on to Tulane University.
Teevens' most successful coaching tenure came at the University of New Hampshire, where he served as head coach from 1999 to 2004. During that time, he led the Wildcats to four consecutive playoff appearances and was twice named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
In 2005, Teevens returned to Dartmouth as head coach, and he has since led the Big Green to several winning seasons and Ivy League championships. Teevens is also known for his innovative approach to the game, particularly his use of the "Mobile Virtual Player" (MVP), a robotic tackling dummy designed to reduce the risk of injury in practice.
Green Alert Take: There's a lot of fiction in there and here is some of it. Buddy Teevens' birthday is wrong, he wasn't born in Oregon, he didn't grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area, he didn't study psychology, he didn't start as a Dartmouth assistant in 1981, didn't coach three seasons at Maine or at Pacific or Oregon at all, and most certainly wasn't a successful coach at New Hampshire. The last paragraph is spot on, although I don't think eight winning records in the past 10 years would be characterized as "several" winning seasons.
Prompt 2: Who is the best Dartmouth football player ever?
It's difficult to name a single "best" Dartmouth football player ever, as there have been many talented players in the program's long history. However, there are certainly some notable players who have made significant contributions to the team.One standout player from Dartmouth's history is Bob Blackman, who played for the Big Green from 1947 to 1950. Blackman was a two-time All-American and set numerous school and Ivy League records during his career. He later went on to a successful coaching career, with stints at Dartmouth, Illinois, and Northwestern.Another notable Dartmouth football player is Jay Fiedler, who played for the Big Green from 1990 to 1993. Fiedler was a talented quarterback who set numerous school records during his career, including the record for most career passing yards. He went on to play in the NFL for several years, with stints on teams including the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets.Other notable Dartmouth football players include Bruce Wood, who played from 1969 to 1971 and went on to play in the NFL for the New York Giants, and Casey Cramer, who played from 1999 to 2002 and later played for the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins.Overall, Dartmouth has a rich football tradition with many talented players over the years, and there are likely many other contenders for the title of "best" Dartmouth football player ever depending on personal opinions and criteria.
Green Alert Take: OK, Bob Blackman didn't play for the Big Green and he didn't coach at Northwestern and where are Reggie Williams and Murry Bowden among others? But the most hilarious (and surprising to me) bit was learning that I played at Dartmouth and then went on to the New York Giants after finishing my Big Green career in 1971. Every last piece of my bio couldn't be more wrong.
For grins, I asked ChatGPT to write a poem about Dartmouth football and it's only half bad:
On a field of green and white,
The warriors of Dartmouth fight,
With strength and skill they take the field,
Determined to never yield.They run and pass with all their might,
Their opponents they do smite,
With every snap and every play,
They strive to win the day.The crowd cheers and roars with glee,
As the Big Green takes victory,
Their spirit and courage never fade,
As they march to the accolade.From every corner of the land,
The Dartmouth faithful take their stand,
They shout and chant and sing with pride,
For their team that never hides.So let us hail the Big Green,
A team of glory, fierce and keen,
For Dartmouth football will always be,
A legend of history.
And finally, I asked for ChatGPT to "Make up a mystery story about Dartmouth College football." Here's what it produced:
It was a crisp autumn day in Hanover, New Hampshire, and the Dartmouth College football team was gearing up for their big game against rival Harvard. The atmosphere was electric, with fans streaming into the stadium and tailgating in the parking lot. Everyone was excited for the big game, but little did they know that a mystery was about to unfold.
As the team was warming up, one of the coaches noticed that the footballs they were using didn't feel quite right. They seemed slightly deflated, which was strange since they had been properly inflated the day before. The coach quickly grabbed a gauge to check the air pressure, and his suspicions were confirmed - the footballs were indeed underinflated.
The team's equipment manager was called over to investigate, and he immediately suspected foul play. Someone had tampered with the footballs, and it was clear that they had been intentionally deflated to make them easier to grip and throw. The question was, who had done it?
The investigation began, with the team's coaching staff and equipment manager questioning everyone who had access to the footballs. The suspects ranged from the team's quarterbacks, who would benefit the most from easier-to-throw footballs, to rival Harvard students who may have sneaked onto the field under cover of darkness to tamper with the balls.
As game time approached, tensions were high. The Dartmouth team was determined to win, but they were also worried that their opponents might have an unfair advantage. The mystery of the deflated footballs hung over the game like a dark cloud, adding an extra layer of drama and intrigue to the already intense rivalry.
In the end, Dartmouth was able to overcome the challenge and win the game, but the mystery of who had deflated the footballs was never solved. Despite their best efforts, the team's coaching staff was unable to identify the culprit, and the incident remained a mystery that would be remembered for years to come. Some say that the truth is still out there, waiting to be uncovered by a determined detective with a passion for solving cold cases.
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EXTRA POINT
Mrs. BGA and I will be headed to our warm-weather hideaway in a few weeks but BGA Daily will be posted as usual. Trust me, I will not be asking ChatGPT to fill in for me.
