Alright, take a chill pill guys. For obvious reasons, I didn’t actually ask ChatGPT to write my blog post, but with the recent release of ChatGPT 4 and my dad constantly bringing it up just to tell me that my job skills will be obsolete in less than 10 years and that I have to learn advanced computer programming over summer vacation so that I’m financially dependent from my parents in my 30s, I thought – “why not use it for my blog post?” That, combined with March Madness and my complete lack of basketball skills and knowledge led me to come up with a fictional character duel bracket and see if I agree or disagree with ChatGPT’s answers on who would win each round. Furman may have won against Virginia (which is apparently a big deal), but let’s see if Elsa from Frozen could beat up Han Solo.
First up – Shrek vs. Ant-Man. I thought this would be a pretty even fight considering Shrek’s strength and Ant-Man’s technological advantage.
Here’s what ChatGPT had to say: In a fight between Shrek and Ant-Man, the outcome could go either way, as both characters have unique strengths and abilities.
It proceeds to talk about Shrek’s strength, fighting skills, and surprising agility compared to Ant-Man’s power as “a superhero who can shrink himself down to the size of an ant” (never would have guessed) who can control ants. ChatGPT thinks that if Ant-Man entered Shrek’s ear or nose, he would gain the upper hand, but Shrek’s resistance to damage could make that difficult, and he could knock out Ant-Man with a single punch. Overall, no winner could be decided because it depends on the circumstances of the fight. In my opinion, I think Shrek has to be the winner of this matchup. If we take the route of Ant-Man entering his ears, and maybe this is my ex-AP Physics 2 brain speaking, but with the conical shape of Shrek’s ear, isn’t there a possibility that any attempt by Ant-Man to enter Shrek’s ear will be met by an impassable tornado-like vortex? Or maybe I didn’t deserve to pass that class. Who knows.
Our next contestants are Patrick Bateman and Megamind. Fortunately, I did agree with ChatGPT on this one that Megamind would 100% win in a fight. Although Patrick Bateman would be able to psychologically manipulate Megamind pretty easily. Megamind’s advanced technology and coolness factor would definitely come out as the winner. ChatGPT had a similar argument, saying that Megamind’s high-tech gadgets would allow him to analyze Patrick Bateman’s fighting style, and Bateman would likely not be able to land an attack. I would also like to take this moment to settle a debate between me and everyone I have ever talked to about this. I don’t know why, but I always thought Megamind looked exactly like Neil Patrick Harris. So much so that I thought he was voiced by the actor for at least seven years before actually looking up the cast and realizing I was wrong. I do not know how I am the only one who thinks this, but I will die on this hill.
I wanted to give some appreciation to one of my all-time favorites movies: Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg. If you don’t know this movie, it’s about a Vegas lounge singer named Deloris Van Cartier who witnesses her mobster boyfriend commit some crimes, and goes into witness protection at a convent, where she teaches them how to sing. Comedy 10/10, music 10/10, literally everything 10/10 I love that movie so much. So, I put Deloris Van Cartier against Homer Simpson, because they’re both regular people, and let’s be honest, I haven’t been the nicest by putting a Wall Street investment banker against an alien supervillain. However, ChatGPT said it couldn’t choose a winner. Are you actually kidding me? We have Deloris Van Cartier, a street-smart and resourceful woman, against Homer Simpson. He works a dead-end job, has interesting parenting skills, and his street-smarts are at rock bottom. In my humble opinion, Deloris Van Cartier would absolutely demolish Homer Simpson, and there is no question about it even if ChatGPT thinks “the outcome of a fight would depend on the specific circumstances of the confrontation”. We really can’t trust technology these days.
The final pair-up in this bracket was Elsa from Frozen and Han Solo. Once again, the queen of indecisiveness ChatGPT couldn’t think of a winner, but this time, I have to say I agree. One hand, we have Elsa, whose magical powers would easily give her an upper hand if she instantly froze Han Solo. In Star Wars’ The Empire Strikes Back, we saw Han Solo get frozen in carbonite by Darth Vader, which incapacitated him for a hot second until Princess Leia rescued him from Jabba the Hutt’s lair. If Elsa was to do this, it would be an easy fight – however, Han Solo’s close combat skills could distract her for a significant amount of time until he can escape. Also, he has a gun. So there’s that. However, since this is a family-friendly blog post, I will declare Elsa as the winner.
So, we’ve made it to our next round, but I think this one will tie up pretty quickly.
I thought Shrek and Megamind would have an obvious winner, but ChatGPT made me think a bit more. ChatGPT emphasized Shrek’s strength, durability and “strong sense of smell” (??) and how it could allow him to overpower Megamind in one-on-one combat. This surprised me, because I thought Megamind would be an obvious winner. If I could work spiked platform combat boots and use alien technology to disintegrate my enemies, I think I could take on a seven foot ogre pretty easily.
Between Elsa and Deloris, I also think Elsa’s ice powers would give her an easy upper hand against a power-less human, and she would win the fight pretty easily.
And that brings us to our last gladiator fight: Megamind vs. Elsa. Once again, ChatGPT doesn’t know what’s going on, but I vote for Megamind. Think about it: if you had futuristic military technology and secret supervillain lair, shouldn’t it be easy to beat a 20-something woman who, while she can make ice projectiles and shoot them at you, you can melt them with a ray gun? I certainly think so. And that brings us to our final winner, Megamind! What did I learn from this experience? Maybe ChatGPT can come up with successful military strategy, and maybe I need better ideas for my blog posts.
Hi Anjana! I was immediately drawn to your blog post because my dad has also been harping on me about the rise of AI. My dad has been regularly sending me Reddit and Twitter threads about how the AI has improved, and it’s definitely both exciting and terrifying.
I thought that your blog post topic was super unique! I had never thought of using ChatGPT to fill out a fictional character bracket, but your idea kind of opened my eyes to the possibilities with this AI.
When I first read about the match up between Shrek and Ant Man, I thought that Ant Man would have been the winner do doubt. But when I heard about Shrek’s resistance to damage, I got really conflicted about who the true winner would be. In the end, I think I agree that Shrek might be the winner because he can stand up to Ant Man’s punches.
I also initially agreed that Elsa would have won against Han Solo. I thought I remembered a scene where Elsa shielded herself from arrows with ice, so I ended up spending 10 minutes on YouTube looking for the scene. I though an ice shield would be able to stop Han Solo’s gun, but then I remembred that Han Solo uses a laser gun, so that would melt right through the ice. I think that if Elsa isn’t able to freeze Han within the first few minutes, then Han would win.
Anyway, giving these one-on-ones a serious consideration was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed your blog post!
Hey Anjana!
I have literally never laughed harder at a blog. I think the matching of Shrek and Antman is pure genius. However, I disagree with Chat GTP thinking that Antman would have a leg up. Think about it, Shrek was born and raised in the swamp. In fact, I would argue that he IS the swamp. With that being said, I am confident that he would have some biological defense mechanism from ants entering his body. I just feel like that’s too easy. I’m pretty disappointed that GTP couldn’t choose a winner for a lot of the brackets. Come on! Just do your job!!! I think another factor that must be considered is where is this battle occurring? Last year in biology, we did something called March Mammal Madness, where we had to choose which animal would beat another. You would think, say, a killer whale would beat an ostrich, but if the random location assignment ends up on land, then the killer whale is as good as dead. Further, would the characters battling each other have to chose one universe to battle in? If so, does the character without the home advantage adopt any super powers if that is deemed normal in the story line? I’ll have to reflect on that, and I will have to find you to discuss my in-depth thoughts!
I may have commented on your blog week 1, but other than that time, this is my only time commenting. First, I like the clickbait title. Were the characters made by chatgpt or did you input them? Also, did you try and re-write the prompt so that ChatGPT had to give a clear answer to who would win? Regardless, I found this post extremely entertaining. If I were to fill out the bracket myself, Ant-Man would win, Megamind would win, Homer Simpson would accidentally win, and Han Solo would win. Han Solo has to beat Elsa simply because he survived carbonite freezing so he can survive a little bit of snow and ice from Elsa. In round 2, Ant-Man wins once again, and Han Solo wins. Lastly, Ant-Man wins.
I like your commentary about why certain characters would win, but I don’t think the blog being family-friendly should influence anything. Han Solo annihalates Elsa. End of story. I read through the rest of the explanations, and Megamind is very underrated under most circumstances and does deserve to beat Shrek. The real question is should Ant-Man really have lost to Shrek in the first place. It would take a while, but Ant-Man either crawls into his brain and kills him or turns into a 100 foot tall giant and steps on shrek repeatedly until shrek is a green blob. Either way, thank you for the entertaining and unique post!
Hi Anjana! When I first saw the title of your blog I was very alarmed. I thought to myself, “how did she bypass Mr. Williams?” since I remember Mr. Williams telling us that he had AI detection software. After reading the first line in your blog though, my heart was laid to rest.
I can honestly relate to the Asian parent constantly nagging about how you should learn computer skills since they’re vital for the future. Which, don’t get me wrong, I believe they are! Just not to the extent that they exaggerate it to, which is an end of the world homeless scenario. I also personally have a vendetta against learning any type of computer science because when I was a kid, my mom signed me up for a Python class that thoroughly traumatized me. The teacher had everyone program a circle, the simplest of tasks, and I had to cry and beg my mom to do it because I couldn’t understand.
I think it’s interesting what you used ChatGPT for, I honestly would not have thought of using it for that. When I first used ChatGPT I tried to make it write a Wattpad story (it really sucked.)
Anjana, an interesting read.
Upon seeing your blog title I was indeed thrown for a loop. Would’ve been bold. I’ll now compare my thoughts with AI on these matchups. In regards to the first battle, I feel like Ant Man would win against Shrek. Despite his brute strength, Shrek likely doesn’t have much brawling experience. Though I would like it if Shrek won this one, Ant man’s advanced tech and advantageous powers (which really still don’t make sense to me. I even watched Ant Man Quantumania recently and the concept of this literal ant-sized man winning any fight is absurd) dictate that he should win. I don’t know anything about Patrick Bateman, but I also agree that Megamind would win (a common theme here is that the person with the better gear will win. No fun). Elsa vs Han Solo is a battle I never saw coming and honestly I am not sure that there is a clear victor. Despite Han Solo’s ruffian background, I think Elsa’s supernatural abilities would overpower him. I was glad you referenced the time when he was frozen in carbonite because I had the same thought. Rough out here for Han.
Anjana,
I absolutely loved your blog post and definitely do not think that you need “better ideas” – this was a masterpiece. Sometimes I sit and wonder how you come up with such creative ideas from blogposts to ceramics projects (still thinking about your monster by the way).
I loved how you took a kind of nerdy debate about ChatGPT and made it into a fun experience. Our family has also been having major crises with the rise of machine learning. Since my father works as a radiologist (he claims his job won’t exist in 10 years either) and I am going into computer science with a concentration in artificial intelligence you can see how heated the dinner table discussions are. Although I do think AI is revolutionary, I definitely do not believe it can replace the human mind. I honestly could write an entire blog post on this topic so I will not get into that.
Your blog post did remind me of a research paper my friend and I were working on called “Is ChatGPT Smarter than a 6th Grader”. We ran multiple different tests on it and came to the same conclusion – not yet. Yes, it has amazing skills but when it comes down to consistency it simply cannot match the human brain …yet.
Once again, I really enjoyed reading your blog post and please don’t stop with the creative ideas!
Hi Anjana!
I just need to start off by saying I absolutely love all of your blogs, and I have no idea how you even think of these things. All of the contestants you chose seem so random but so perfectly correct in their own beautiful way. It’s crazy how ChatGPT was able to rise up out of nowhere so quickly, and I know many people who love it. It’s also extremely interesting yet scary to know how many things this software is capable of and how it could progress in the future. Even then, I am extremely glad you were able to use this software to create more good in the world, which you always seem to do!
I very much appreciate the images you used in this post, and really any of your posts, because they are very relevant to what’s going on. Even when I originally looked at the final bracket without entirely reading the blog post, I thought to myself, “yeah, that checks out.” Megamind has always been my underrated, undairdawg, number one, and I will always be rooting for him. Even in the movies, its crazy to see how nature vs. nurture really impacted the characters.
Thank you so much for this post and, no, I don’t believe you need better ideas for your blog posts.