BuzzFeed’s AI-powered quizzes are here and they could be funnier

BuzzFeed’s AI-powered quizzes have arrived. Starting today, there are six for readers to try. As you can probably imagine, the majority are themed around Valentine’s Day. Want help writing the perfect breakup text? How about a brief synopsis for a romcom starring your favorite actor as you? Those are just a few of the “Infinity Quizzes” BuzzFeed has on offer.

Each works in more or less the same way. You pick the quiz you want to complete and then answer a few questions to give Buzzy the Robot, an algorithm based on OpenAI’s public API, the material it needs to generate a personalized response to your prompts. “It’s like having a really smart coworker that you can bounce ideas off of and collaborate with who is always available and never eats at their desk,” BuzzFeed says of the software.

BuzzFeed

According to the outlet, each quiz was created by a human writer who wrote the framing, headline and questions. The personalized outcomes you see are the result of Buzzy combining the inputs from both the quiz writer and you the reader. “It’s a collaborative effort and we couldn’t do it without all three,” BuzzFeed said. “Human creativity is always at the center of our work, and our quizzes, but with the magic of AI we can now create things that were never possible before, like infinite results personalized just for you.”

The results Buzzy produces are predictably hit-and-miss. I enjoyed the breakup text it produced, but it took a few attempts and a few different quizzes before I got a result that made me chuckle. More than anything, BuzzFeed’s Infinity Quizzes highlight how hard it is to teach humor. However, I will say it’s a better use of the technology than we’ve seen from CNET, which tried and failed to use an AI to write financial explainers.

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed’s foray into generative AI comes after the company laid off 12 percent of its newsroom this past December. However, it’s far from the only business turning to generative AI to improve its fortunes. In the same week that it came out BuzzFeed had plans to embrace the technology for both editorial and business operations, Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI’s text generation systems. The tech giant has since announced it’s working on AI-enhanced versions of Bing and Edge. Whether it’s funny or not, generative AI is here to stay.