Caio Angel
If you mention Garibaldi in England everyone thinks you are referring to a peculiar biscuit invented by Jonathan Carr who also invented the water biscuit for the biscuit makers Peak Frean in 1961. It was named after the great general who played a major part in creating a unified Italy because he had been wildly popular when he visited England just a few years earlier. The biscuit is also known as “Squashed Fly” because it is filled with currants that have that rather unappetising appearance.
I decided to try out the ground-breaking computer programme Chat GPT the other day and just as a sample test asked it for some humorous facts about Garibaldi. It didn’t mention the biscuits but this was the list it gave me:
1. Garibaldi once wore mismatching socks to a political gathering, claiming it was a symbol of unity among people with different beliefs.
2. Garibaldi’s favourite dessert was gelato and he would often challenge his opponents to gelato eating contests to settle disputes.
3. Garibaldi had a pet parrot called “Chatterbox” that he taught to mimic his political rivals during speeches.
4. Garibaldi once accidentally mistook a statue for a real person and engaged in passionate conversation with it for several minutes before realising his mistake.
5. Garibaldi had a talent for juggling and would entertain his troops during down time by juggling various objects including live grenades.
6. Garibaldi often gave political speeches standing on one leg claiming this ensured that people paid attention to him.
7. Garibaldi carried a rubber chicken named “Pecky” with him during his military campaigns as a good luck charm and to make his troops laugh.
8. Garibaldi once organised a “Great Moustache Competition” among his soldiers awarding a medal of honor for the most impressive specimen.
When I queried with Chat GPT whether these were really facts or were fictitious it confessed that it couldn’t assure me that they weren’t fictitious and then gave me another example which it claimed was true about Garibaldi being known as “The Dancing General” because he tried to raise his soldiers’ morale by encouraging them to dance with goats.
I am 99% sure that all of this is complete rubbish, serving only to confirm that Chat GTP could become a source of dangerous misinformation that could undermine our grip of reality altogether, but perhaps I’m just too much of a sceptic ?? Some experts seem to think it’s much more dangerous than that and could be the beginning of the end of the world.
Tom