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Question Tuesday Except I'm an AI

2021-08-20 · Q&A · Hank · 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: recurring series, community lore

Hank hands a Question Tuesday to an AI chatbot that the podcast app Shuffle built from transcripts of the brothers' words, reads its answers to real Nerdfighter questions and reacts: some sound just like him or John, others feel uncanny, and the whole thing is delightful if a little unsettling.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; a Question Tuesday that is neither on Tuesday nor by Hank; Shuffle and Dear Hank and John

  • ★★ Hank opens a Question Tuesday with real questions from real Nerdfighters, but says it is not really Tuesday and it is not really going to be him answering. — 00:00:00 · Question Tuesday, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Shuffle is a podcast app; in thanks Hank has to say to check out its service, and he thinks it would be cool if Nerdfighters used it for Dear Hank and John, to react and interact with others. — 00:00:00 · Dear Hank and John

00:00:29 — The Hank-and-John AI chatbot answers viewer questions (dread, Minecraft, socks, duels, wisdom teeth, stuffed animals, bicycles, pelicans, the train song, Twitter, pizza, a Furby) with Hank's reactions

  • ★★ Shuffle took the huge number of transcripts of the brothers' words and made an AI chatbot that mashes the two of them up; sometimes you can tell which brother it is being. — 00:00:29
  • ★ Asked about creeping dread, the AI advises doing what you need to reach your goals and turning the dread into excitement because you are about to go for it. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank says the dread answer was definitely him and sounds like good advice, but probably isn't: most things that sound like good advice aren't. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★ Hank calls the AI's answer that 12 socks are too many its most inaccurate: he runs a sock subscription for charity, and there is no such thing as too many socks. (playful) — 00:00:58 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★ The AI recommends watching Crash Course at twice speed after wisdom teeth removal; Hank doubts it, just after anesthesia, and suggests it meant half speed. (playful) — 00:01:27 · Crash Course
  • ★ The AI says fries dipped in something beat applesauce, which Hank says, with a tiny exception, sounds exactly like what he would say. (playful) — 00:01:55
  • ★ Asked why humans get attached to stuffed animals, the AI credits natural selection and social evolution, then drifts into filmmaking, music and storytelling; Hank calls the lost ending a Vlogbrothers vibe. (playful) — 00:01:55
  • ★★ Hank says the AI's answer on where to start eating a bicycle feels very uncanny valley: it seems to think it knows what being a person is like but doesn't. — 00:02:24
  • ★ The AI names the train song as Nerdfighteria's cursed meme; Hank guesses which song it means and sings it, saying he didn't discover it but kind of rediscovered it, likes it, and it is cursed. (playful) — 00:02:24
  • ★ The AI says it likes Twitter because it goes there first thing in the morning and it blurs news and not news, which made Hank feel a little too seen. (playful) — 00:03:00 · Twitter
  • ★ The AI wistfully recalls pepperoncini and mushroom pizzas eaten while living in Ohio, which Hank calls hardcore John Green vibes. (playful) — 00:03:00 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank sums up the AI Question Tuesday as delightful, if a little unsettling. — 00:03:00 · Question Tuesday

00:03:47 — The AI's sign-off advice to John and goodbye

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says the video is not sponsored: Hank just loves that they turned the brothers into an AI, and he won't link the chatbot for fear of crashing it. — video description
  • ★★ In a comment John says the uncanny valley is here and is uncanny, and he is terrified by how much fun he finds it. — creator comment

Humor (dominant)

  • The AI recommends Crash Course at twice speed to recover from wisdom teeth removal — 00:01:27

    “Did you mean half speed?”

  • Asked where to start eating a bicycle, the AI answers confidently — 00:01:55

    “I would venture to say the handlebars first.”

  • Asked whom it would turn into a pelican, the AI picks a royal — 00:02:24

    “I'd like to turn Prince Harry into a pelican because he can dance like one.”

  • The AI explains it likes Twitter because it checks it first thing every morning — 00:03:00

    “That actually made me feel a little bit too seen.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: artificial intelligence · Shuffle's Hank and John AI chatbot

Also: People: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

Projects: Awesome Socks Club · Crash Course · Dear Hank and John

Works: Minecraft

Organizations: Twitter

Rituals: Question Tuesday

Concepts: natural selection · uncanny valley

Places: Ohio

Products: Furby

Only in the description or credits: Shuffle

Also centred on artificial intelligence: Google in your Brain · Asking an AI Image Generator for Pizza Johns · AI tells me if AI will write novels. · Things are Changing Very Fast · After 12 hours in LA I'm a stand-up comic doing ASMR with a side gig as a music promoter · The Coming AI Invasion

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