With over 300,000 followers on TikTok, Barry Enderwich, who is known to his followers as SandwichesofHistory has built a niche online by filming himself making sandwiches from different time periods and countries. Now, with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven chatbots such as ChatGPT, Bing and Google Bard – Barry Enderwich is creating “sandwiches of future history”, which has instantly drawn attention of internet users.
He’s the latest creator to use the tool — which has been deemed controversial in some circles — as a way to make more distinct content for his followers.
“I wanted something unique,” Enderwick, who has a background in digital marketing, said of how he came up with the idea. “So, I’d say, ‘write me an unusual sandwich recipe’ and that led to the sandwiches that I’ve gotten so far. … For me, the goal is to generate something that’s not totally available already but also not something that’s just beyond the pale”.
Meanwhile, according to NBC reports, ChatGPT has raised concerns over its rapid evolution and human-like responses. According to a study conducted by the PEW Research Center, approximately 38 percent of Americans said they were more concerned than excited about more AI in their daily lives, while only 15 percent said they were more excited than concerned.
According to NBC, ChatGPT has already proven to be a recipe for viral success. For example, Bryan Hartlett has gone viral for using ChatGPT to write scripted fan fiction about the television show “Gilmore Girls” on TikTok.
His most popular video, which garnered over 1 million views, is a fictional phone call between high-society mother Emily Gilmore and daughter Lorelai Gilmore about saving a seat at an event in Stars Hollow, where Lorelai lives. In another TikTok, Stars Hollow resident Kirk complained to the local diner’s owner, Luke, over the price of certain items on the menu.
Commenters were shocked by the accuracy of the scene, many questioning whether it really happened. Others expressed gratitude for new “Gilmore Girls” content, even if it was fan-made.
Bryam Hartlett has a simple strategy when it comes to making the videos: He feeds detailed descriptions of the characters and desired scenes into ChatGPT and uses the dialogue written by the AI with photos and recorded voiceovers to bring the scene to life.
“If you were to just type into ChatGPT ‘write me an original Friday night dinner scene for an episode of “Gilmore Girls’, it will definitely spit out a conversation, but it’s only part of the way there”, he said. “It has the characters and the settings, but the humor isn’t quite there”.
It took time to develop each character’s voice and understand how to create the same tone and fast-paced humor fans loved, Byan Hartlett said. Eventually, he figured it out — and has since produced 14 AI-generated episodes.
“It was a matter of giving it a little bit more instruction and saying things like, ‘this is a character description of Lorelai’, ‘this is a character description of Emily’, ‘this is how these two characters typically communicate,’ and things like that”, he said. “Then it just kept getting closer and closer. With some of the scenes that I’ve made so far, that’s all it took”.
Tom McGovern, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey with over 380,000 followers on TikTok, also said curiosity drew him to the software.
“Initially, I was like, ‘Let’s have some fun. Let’s see what it can do if I ask it to write something dumb’”, he said. “I asked ChatGPT to write me a song called ‘Sexy Bus’. That’s it, no genre, no chord progression, nothing. Sure enough, it spit out some lyrics that I thought were funny”.
