The Hottest New AI Chatbot Is Just a Guy Answering Your Questions
Tucker Bryant has launched an art project called ChatTJB, where he manually answers thousands of user prompts instead of using an AI model. The project serves as a commentary on society's growing reliance on artificial intelligence and the risk of cognitive surrender.
Why it matters
It highlights the psychological impact of AI integration and the human tendency to defer critical thinking to automated systems.
That’s the idea behind ChatTJB. It’s the creation of 32-year-old Tucker Bryant, a public speaker, artist, and former project manager at Google. A San Francisco billboard describes ChatTJB as “the leading chat interface powered by AI.” In this case, though, AI stands for “average individual.”
Bryant didn’t train an LLM to respond based on how he writes. He literally sits down and answers the prompts himself. If you request an image of a skunk wearing sunglasses, he’ll scribble one up. If you ask how to fry an egg, he’ll respond with a suggestion. Maybe. (WIRED asked ChatTJB how to become a morning person, and at the time of writing, we haven’t received a response. The website notes that “thousands of people are writing in right now.”)
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