12 Comments
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Margaret Tomlinson's avatar

That conversation with ChatGPT is hysterically funny. I would never use it in any case, but OMG, what awful designs!

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Heather Evans's avatar

Isn’t it hilarious?! And awful designs! But a really polite collaborator

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Siu-Li's avatar
6dEdited

I’m having a good laugh, too. I tried early on to have AI generate a landscape. It did really funny things like put plants in front of the porch stairs.

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Heather Evans's avatar

And it does it with such confidence! Love, Heather

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Signe Wilkinson's avatar

I would never consult AI for any esthetic question but glad you did it for me! Good laugh but was also impressed by how polite Mr. AI was and willing to keep adjusting to your corrections. Not sure a live landscaper with a pulse would be so patient!

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Heather Evans's avatar

ChapGPT is indeed un-humanly polite! That makes it fun to talk to — though eventually it feels passive aggressive: “Oh, so sorry my answer contains all those errors for the umpteenth time. My bad!”

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Kathie's avatar

Thank you for doing something that I wanted done! This was funny but also depressing.

I work in a very good nursery and we work very hard to help customers choose the right plants as well as help them (for free!) with designs. I had a customer come in to pick up the plants she'd ordered online and she was ecstatic about how ChatGPT had helped her design her yard. I asked her a few questions and pointed out (very politely) a few contradictions. She was grateful and told me she'd incorporate those ideas - and so I (very politely) told her that ChatGPT is not a person who has ideas, but a piece of tech that scrapes and takes my/our ideas that we've freely shared online to help people make the right choices, but is quite capable of confidently giving the wrong advice.

Your patience with AI was phenomenal, I think this is a great expose of relying on tech rather than Heather!

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Heather Evans's avatar

I am hopeful articles like mine will help people understand the limitations of AI… may take a while.

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Robin's avatar

Heather - that was a fascinating dialog with ChatGPT. Clearly it has a ways to go, but found the process really interesting! Thanks!

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Heather Evans's avatar

Thank you!

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Karla Forsythe's avatar

For me, a big part of the fun of gardening is trying to figure out for myself how I can accomplish what I want. I learn from my mistakes. Also, it is more efficient and less costly to consult a landscaper (not as credentialed designer) who will eyeball your yard and can give you practical ideas plus a cost estimate. ChatGPT is a sterile approach at odds with the more intuitive, trial and error process used by nature itself.

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Heather Evans's avatar

So true! And that trial and error approach is so fun and creative.

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