‘Pictionary vs AI’ vs Chatgpt

I just had to shoehorn AI into the festivities, didn't I?

Actually, I can blame my mum for this one.

She bought me and my daughter a copy of Mattel's 'PICTIONARY VS AI': a zeitgeisty update on the classic scribble-to-score game often dusted down in the lull between Christmas and New Year.

Blimey, I thought, they really do think of everything, don't they? And, yup, that's coming from me...

So there we were. All set up with our board, counters, drawing pads, and various plastic stands - ready to go. On Daisy's card? Watermelon. A simple enough task and she did a fine job. Or that's what I thought.

We hit 'scan' on the game's accompanying web app. Nowt. A bit of position jiggling fueled by 'first game' patience later, and the results were in.

'You've drawn CHEESE'.

An easy mistake to make, I figured. My faith in technology knows no bounds.

My go. I turned my card to reveal the subject of my sketch: a ladder.

Right, I'll show PICTIONARY VS AI. [COMPETITIVE DAD ALERT]

'You've drawn a KANGAROO'.

A kangaroo? A f**king kangaroo?! (my internal monologue, clearly.)

Daisy looked at me. The cogs had been whirring through the two disappointing rounds we'd played.

'Should we just use ChatGPT to scan the pictures?' she suggested.

If you wanted any confirmation about how much I also bang on about AI at home, there's your answer.

We fired up the GPT app, started the next round, and goodness, it was like we'd suddenly brought in a quantum computer to play along with us.

'Pizza' was Daisy's first card in the new game. She drew a slice, then added a box to the pic:

'The drawing on the pink board shows a slice of pizza and a pizza box with the word "Dominos" on it, suggesting it's a Domino's pizza.'

My round. I got 'UFO'. Which looked like a hat when I first drew it, but after a few modifications and additions:

'The drawing on the yellow board appears to depict a UFO with beams of light coming down, possibly abducting something or someone.'

What does this all mean? I'm not entirely sure. But it does give us an insight into the rapid advances we're seeing with AI, and will continue to over the coming years.

Mattel released PICTIONARY VS AI in October 2023, and by January 2024, with GPT Vision, it was already WAY more effective to play the game using a home-made adaptation using capability baked into the latest version ChatGPT-4.

Who won? Daisy.

How did I lose, you ask?

ChatGPT-4 confused a picture I’d drawn of a shoe for a pair of pants. I woz robbed….

Bloody AI.