AI-made Willy Wonka event goes wonky

The Glasgow Willy Wonka experience made headlines and brought much laughter to people all over the country last week – but not in the way the event organisers had hoped.

Participants attending Willy's Chocolate Experience in Glasgow were promised “a universe where confectionary (sic) dreams are brought to life” and “a journey filled with delicious treats, enchanting adventures, and moments worth capturing”.

What they got was an experience so bad that they called the police. Attendees found themselves in a barely-decorated warehouse, surrounded by a scattering of props and a small bouncy castle. The actor playing Wonka has since said he was given a 15-page script the night before opening consisting of AI-generated gibberish.

The Oompa Loompas looked distraught. A made-up villain, The Unknown, lurked menacingly. Those delicious treats that were promised? They turned out to be a quarter cup of lemonade and two jelly beans per child.

Considering organisers, the House of Illuminati, were charging up to £35 (US$45) a ticket for an event that left children and adults alike distraught, it is no wonder the police were called. It sounds like pure nightmare fuel. After an immediate and angry response from the initial batch of attendees, organisers pulled the plug on the event just hours after opening.

That did not prevent social media having an absolute field day, amplifying the sheer ludicrousness and awfulness of the entire event.

The warning signs were there. The event website looks slick enough at first glance, but closer inspection reveals AI’s chocolatey fingerprints. After all, what else but AI would come up with such nonsense as “Cartchy tuns. Exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet teats”?

The full script also appears to have been leaked online, and again, it is full of standard AI giveaways. For a start, it includes much that is simply impossible and untrue. One particularly memorable section has the actor playing Willy catching a bubble, which then “gently pops, releasing a small, twinkling light that ascends into the rafters, leaving the audience in awe”. The script gives no indication of how this effect was to be achieved. Clearly, AI believes in magic.

It is just so easy to use AI to create an event that people want to go to – and are willing to part with their hard-earned cash to attend. In this case, attendees got their money back after reality spectacularly failed to meet expectations; the sheer detachment from reality is something that is impossible to ignore.

It is incredibly easy to make something, be it words, images, video or audio, using AI. The weird picture above? That is not an image from the event: I made it, and it took me less than 60 seconds. Imagine what I could have done if I had spent 60 minutes on it.

AI undoubtedly has its place in our sector, it is a powerful tool that we can and should explore. But unless there is some kind of regulation, we are only going to see more and more of these stories pop up.

Source: M&IT