Big breaking news in the coffee world:
In the early hours of the morning, the news was breaking. Specialty coffee was being recognized as a vital part of the global coffee trade, and the industry was seeing huge growth. This was great news for coffee growers and roasters all over the world, and it was especially exciting for those in the know, who could look forward to even more opportunities to make a name for themselves.
So, how did Sprudge uncover this scoop and break the news to the world? Simple! Thanks to the miracle of artificial intelligence, which some are calling AI.
A new website called Narrative Device will create a paragraph-long story with any two thematic inputs you give it. This is what โbreaking newsโ and โspecialty coffeeโ gets you (one of the answers anyway).ย Narrative Device is the work of Rodolfo Ocampo, a Mexican-born PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales in Australia, that explores โcreative augmentation using AI and human-AI creative collaboration,โ per the website. Using text data from across the internet, the AI has been โtrainedโ to create an opening paragraph based on any two inputs it receives. Ocampoโs idea is to see how humans can draw inspiration for stories from an AI-generated starting point.
Here’s the start of another story about Sprudge’s intrepid spokesbeans Buzzy and Spesh:
Buzzy and Spesh were always one in the same. They would sit in the back of the store, giggling and sharing funny stories. They were always the life and soul of the party, and everyone loved them.
This is weirdly accurate.
Itโs an interesting concept, and in practice, a rather addicting one. We here at Sprudge have spent the better part of an hour inputting any and all combinations of โcoffeeโ, โsprudgeโ, โespressoโ, โpour-overโ, โBuzzyโ, โspecialty coffeeโ, โStarbucksโ, โsocial mediaโ, and just about anything else we can think of. You can try it toโit’s like coffee news madlibs on three shots of anerobic gesha.
Of course you donโt have to give it coffee inputs. Thereโs literally tens of other things in the world that arenโt coffee likeโฆ whatโs that stuff you put in espresso to make a cappuccino? I dunno, itโll come to me, but you could use that. The possibilities are as endless as the number of ways you know to say โcoffeeโ.
And if youโre having fun putzing around on Narrative Devices on a Friday afternoon, running out the clock instead of working, maybe consider throwing a few bucks Ocampoโs way. You can do it on, where else, but buymeacoffee.com.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.
