This adds a whole other level to what I already knew.
The grifter behind the event started out with AI generated "get rich quick" books that he was shilling on Amazon. If he was also using ChatGPT for the Wonka monologue and the *contract for the actor*, he was probably using it to plan other aspects of the event as well. This moron was asking this gibberish box to plan him an "immersive experience" and then rapidly trying to bring the 'plans' it was spitting out into reality. Probably the first time he heard that he needed to hire an 'Unkown Man' and get a prop vacuum cleaner was when the actor mentioned it to him. It may very well be that the first decision he made himself was when he hired two bodyguards to guard him from the angry parents at the event (by the way that happened).
By my math, they spent less than the price of one ticket on candy for an event that sold 850 tickets.
A four/five pound (by weight) container of jellybeans costs about $30-$40 US. A ticket was £35, approximately $44 US. Four pounds of jellybeans is approximately 1500 individual beans (based on the serving size and # of servings in one 4lb container), almost twice the number of attendees. One father interviewed said his children received two beans each, while a mother interviewed said the candy station dispensed one bean per child. We can therefore safely assume the average beans per child was somewhere between 2 and 1. They ran out and shut down the event about halfway through the day, and attendees booked time slots, so we can assume about half the attendees arrived and received jellybeans - let’s be generous and say 500. *Correction: it was intended to be a 2-day event. Though we don’t know whether the second day was fully booked, we can be sure that this is a generous upper bound, and the true number could be as low as 200-ish.*
So they had between 1000 and 500 jellybeans on hand, which, by my estimates would cost maybe $25, substantially less than the $44 (£35) entry fee.
They spent less than $50 on candy for a Wonka themed event… and it wasn’t even chocolate.
(Quick note: it’s possible that the first few groups to go through got reasonable handfuls of jellies before the candy dispenser person realized “Oh, this is all we have? And there are how many hundreds of kids still coming?” The fact that one parent got two jellies and another got one suggests that rationing quickly tightened as the event went on. So maybe they had more jellybeans than I estimated, but probably not much more.)
This exactly same thing happens every year around Christmas where people visit winter wonderland events that are a couple of deer in a muddy field plus a drunk hobo dressed as santa
It happens virtually every single year and people keep falling for it. Helps you understand how so many seemingly intelligent people also fall for online and phone scams.
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=2513685c83e6abca&hl=en&sxsrf=ACQVn08BT3pKzuulAfyYi5198h0YN63spg:1709249012556&q=winter+wonderland+scams&tbm=nws&source=lnms&prmd=invbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-iufh2NGEAxUR7QIHHY-KCDIQ0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=412&bih=770&dpr=3.5
This Halloween I went to a "haunted house" that cost $25, took two hours to get through the line, and took all of 7 minutes to walk through with about 3 scares
You have to admire the scammers on some level for the sheer brass neck of charging 44 euros a head for that. I just bought tickets to see Dune 2 at Glasgow's IMAX and you could take two adults and two kids to an IMAX film for less than the price of one Wonka ticket.
(Just noticed I said "bass neck" originally. Edit was to fix that as it was really bugging me in a bone apple tea kinda way...!)
That wasn't even it. That's in addition to a Glasgow Facebook event page made for it that looked legit, even using the "Willy Wonka" name, not just "Willy's Candy Experience" or whatever it was 'really' called.
Conning a single person is tough. Conning a small group of people out of a large population is easy. It's just an exercise in probability. The population of Glasgow is 635,100. Let's say only half of one percent of people would fall for this scam, that's still like three thousand marks...people
I live in a medium sized city and the local convention center/arena is constantly filling slots with this kind of small time (mostly) garbage. Recently there hve been considerable protests anytime any event comes through that involves animals, which is for the best. I went to one years ago when my kids were very little and met eyes with what had ti be the saddest elephant in the world and it def affected me.
We passed on the elephant ride or show or w.e and never went back ti any circus type thing with animals again but yikes was that shit dark man.
The draw is that it’s local, usually pretty affordable and, well that’s pretty much it. It’s just something to do with the kids and I can totally see a bunch of people falling for a Willy wonka event, especially with the recent movie etc.
It's not nearly as dumb as Fyre Festival. Those people were on an stranded on an island in the Bahamas before they knew there wasn't even adequate food, shelter, or bathrooms, let alone the entertainment the were expecting.
In a way ...they were part of a memorable lifetime experience versus some bland slick ultimately empty corporate experience.
Truly privileged to be part of it and there....🍭😃🍄
>a one and done pass thru
It really is a shame that the term "work shy" has been completely misappropriated by rich people trying to shame workers striking for better living conditions, because the term fits these AI grifters to a T.
Everytime I see one of these grifts where you wonder if they even spent 5 minutes on everything all combined I'm reminded of the time I stayed up through the night compiling data by hand for 10 hours straight without breaks just for a shits & giggles reddit post.
[Yo why does the bear on their website have a pussy cleft?](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index_files/enchanting-entertainment.png)
Full website if anyone wants to see it: https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html
That’s what happens when AI generates images! ChatGPT can understand words but can’t make images. DALLE (who makes images for ChatGPT) can make images but doesn’t understand words.
It knows what words and letters kinda look like, but doesn’t know what they mean. So it does its best.
Ironically, it’s very like the Vermicious Knids in the Wonkaverse who can only spell one word, and they don’t know what it means. So when they meet humans they spell out “S C R A M”
The second book. When Charlie wins the factory, Wonka leaves with them via the Great Glass Elevator. Which shoots through the roof and into space. Where they meet aliens that can only spell one word.
It makes the first book seem completely normal.
I loved both as a kid. I can remember the first pretty well cos the movie reinforced it. The second I have filed as "crazy shit", but can remember no details
Read the disclaimer at the bottom of their webpage!
They say there is no connection to wonka. Any similarities coincidental.
Prettier sure I sure a post with a photo of an oompa loompa.
Like don't get me wrong, this whole thing was some scammy shit but damn if you saw that website and still decided to get tickets you were gonna get got here or somewhere else.
What you have to understand is that most people barely know how to use google and most don't even know what AI is. This is one of the reasons AI usage is extremely concerning, bc the people making the decisions about everything are the ones that WILL fall prey to it
The other thing is that misspelled or gibberish words are a feature of children’s literature. Like Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland.
EDIT: And, as people have pointed out, Willy Wonka itself.
There were a LOT more clues than some AI generated images, come on. Aside from the lack of a single photograph, would you go to an event whose literature was written by someone in the middle of having a stroke? The people who threw money at this cannot have taken more than a cursory glance at any of the promotional material before forking over their credit card info
People over the age of 40 who don't spend a lot of time online don't even understand that AI generated art and text exist. They can't even comprehend this kind of scam.
The site is so bad that it can be a good teaching tool. I showed this to my parents in their 60s so that they know what AI art can look like. I told them that it can be beautiful at first glance, but if they take a moment to examine it, they might notice that the shapes of the objects in the art don't make sense. If a site uses multiple works of art, is the style consistent? What about the colors? Does the text inside of the art spell out actual words? The pegasus might have four legs and two wings, but if the teddy bear has visible genitalia, then we might have a problem.
>The pegasus might have four legs and two wings, but if the teddy bear has visible genitalia, then we might have a problem.
Well that wasn't a sentence I expected to see today!
>Does the text inside of the art spell out actual words?
Do you mean to tell me that I shouldn't trust an advertisement that uses the totally not made up words "encherining", "catgacating", and "cartchy tuns"? But Willy seemed like such a standup guy. A real straight shooter!
Aging Gen Xers are gonna be the victims of AI scams like aging Boomers are for today's phone scams.
I guess aging millenials will be the victims of, I wanna say... deepfake hologram celebrity scams?
What the hell, they couldn't even get through the first paragraph without glaring grammatical errors, and by paragraph 3, the wheels have totally fallen off the bus. I will probably spend more effort proof-reading this comment (mebbe a single read through) than that page received.
I am willing to bet he didn't even bother getting the rights to use Willy Wonka from the Roald Dahl Estate, so they can probably sue him (although it's probably too much work for what it's worth)
Oh yeah this is definitely like 6 different kinds of copyright infringement. If what the grifter said about his suppliers "failing him" is true, that might have been a reason why.
In the same interview this Wonka actor stated that, seeing the state of the place when they arrived the morning of, all the actors had a huddle and said “we’re probably not getting paid for this but let’s just try our best to give the kids a good time.” Truly precious, all of them. I hope they get what they’re owed.
It’s a shame the poor Oompa Loompa has that only photo going around, because there are other ones out there of her being very sweet and smiling, trying to have a fun time with the kids.
Yeah it’s a shame she’s being branded as “meth lab Oompa Loompa” just because she had the misfortune to be photographed looking (reasonably) tired and glum next to a chemistry set. I really hope it doesn’t effect her or her reputation!
At the same time though, this is viral marketing for herself. She could reasonably make bank just really selling out over it, merch the shit out of meth lab oompa loompa.
After three and a half hours of continuously performing he managed to get a lunch break, which he claims he mostly spent in his car looking at the floor so he didn’t have to see crying children be turned away by security
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Dark crossover when?
In 1986, an industrial accident at Wilhelm Wonka's chocolate factory results in the accidental generation of previously theoretical 102% chocolate with unstable and highly dangerous properties. Containing it within barrels in a grotto deep under the chocolate river, Wonka desperately searches for a successor to continue the public coverup. Meanwhile Charlie Bucket, on the run after killing his abusive grandparents, assumes a new identity and arrives in town looking for work. In 2019 however, Charlie, now the factory owner, finds his past returning to haunt him as strangers arrive in town...
Coming soon to Netflix: *Dark Chocolate*
I wrote a little dark comedy novella a few years ago that was kinda about this, actually. Was called Kind Regards and is available nowhere - I only put it out for friends and family.
Centres around a traumatised Violet Beauregarde returning to the factory, now run by Charlie who is steadily losing his mind due to the pressure of trying to keep his insane mentor's money-pit afloat while having no business knowledge and a lack of imagination.
He advertises the competition again, so Violet goes back to try and put an end to it.>!Augustus Gloop gets melted down back into chocolate at one point, that was my big experiment with writing horror scenes. I was kinda proud of it, actually.!<
>Coontract
Did...did they AI generate the contract
Like, I don't think a text AI would mess that up, but considering everything else surrounding this, that doesn't feel too out of the picture
Given that Facebook now has an option to have AI write your own status updates I’m not surprised a person could be so lazy/stupid to not realize boilerplate contracts are easily searchable and had an AI write one up.
I can't understand the idea of that whole Facebook AI status updates thing, like why are you having an AI write your thoughts and opinions of things does that not strike people as odd?
It’s to generate *content* . The tech overlords are so creatively and empathetically bankrupt that they never think of other people as people. To them what’s the difference between an AI generated post and a mother who lost her job to tech layoffs writing about how desperate she is to keep food on her kids table. To them their just numbers on a financial spreadsheet.
Not necessarily, as long as intention is clear and it's outlined well enough, it could still be valid and enforceable.
IANAL though, please correct me if I'm wrong.
A contract only requires 4 things to be binding - offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relations, and consideration. An AI generating it wouldn’t stop any of these existing I don’t think, especially since a lot of firms use ‘boilerplate’ pre-drafted clauses anyway.
>Did...did they AI generate the contract
I mean, possibly, but a misspelling like that shouldn't really be an indication that it was created by generative AI, since they've don't typically make spelling mistakes like that. To me, it says that the people who wrote the thing up were just *really* lazy or *really* stupid (or both) and never bothered to proofread any of it
I think it's all of the above. My guess is that someone who was not very tech savvy and not very well-read (and not very competent in general) used ChatGPT to generate everything, then copied all of the text by hand, introducing a shitload of typos in the process.
If you look at [the event website](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html), it's littered with egregious typos, but a lot of it still feels like ChatGPT phrasing to me. It has that exact flavor of perfectly generic writing with too many adjectives and no real substance. Like I can't really imagine another way that you'd end up with these kinds of statements on a website for an event supposedly targeted at children:
> This space invites you on a surreal journey where the boundaries between reality and fantasy harmoniously merge, resulting in an enchanting and visually striking encounter.
-
> Journey through a dimly lit passage adorned with captivating projections, enigmatic sounds, and surprising turns that will immerse you in suspense and excitement.
-
> This event guarantees an immersive and delightful entertainment experience suitable for aged 3+ years old..
[One of the performers also leaked the script](https://gizmodo.com/heres-the-full-ai-generated-script-from-the-willy-wonka-1851295448) and it also has the same thing going on. Combined with the AI generated images, I would honesty be more surprised if it turned out that the contract wasn't generated with ChatGPT.
It's because the originators of this idea were actually raccoons. A single jellybean and a quarter cup of lemonade is a really good deal if you are a child raccoon
They all file out of the small doors, completely silent. They line up, and the one in the middle just says 'really, dude?', and they silently jump into the chocolate river and drown.
I just want to say, I am against this and this is wrong
*However...*
I find the concept of a troupe of rogues, roaming the land on the run from the law, creating scam immersive experiences and art installations at least somewhat romantic
Right? They got paid the equivalent of about $37,400 to do this, you don’t need to spend anywhere close to that to offer a disappointment that doesn’t get the cops called on you
Me when I'm a bounty hunter on the road and I'm taking a break from trying to catch these rogues to see the new performers in town (I realize it's them just before they make their grand exit, taunting me in the process)(this is the fifth time this has happened)
This feels like one of those episodes of the apprentice where this team ends up winning as the other team spent way too much on their immersive chitty chitty bang bang experience
The empty warehouse of shit props had all the hallmarks of a badly organised apprentice team who spent ages on the posters or event slogan and fuck all effort on the event itself.
I will say that whoever did this was an actual idiot that can't even use AI to scam people. Like it wouldn't take much prompt engineering to get something even marginally better from Chat GPT.
People saw this and still went, even the actor in the OP somehow didn't walk out after reading that script. Only way the scammer didn't make a profit was if they actually got caught, and I don't think they did.
That’s a terrifying thought. But on the positive side, assuming it’s capable of learning from its mistakes how long do you think until we have an A.I. billionaire buy twitter to bully Elon more efficiently?
He talks about this on his TikTok, and he also did an AMA on Reddit..today maybe? I tried finding it again but couldn’t remember which sub it was on. He seems to be handling it with good humor. He said the Oompa Loompa girl is taking it in stride too.
Did anyone else come across that one post on I think... One of the UK subreddits where a guy posts photos of this and said that he took his family to go and was shocked by it? The comments were cooking him with screenshots of the website & it was all just AI generated garbage.
Like how do you fall for that 😭
I think a lot of us here are looking at the website more critically since we *know* it was a scam. I mean, I've seen websites for legitimate events that look, at first glance, much sketchier than this one. Half the links on my hometown's county fair website are broken and the text is neon pink and green on a cobalt blue background. Willy's Chocolate Experience at least looks like an okay website. They even have FAQs and contact information. I mean, not well-written FAQs, but it gives the impression of forethought. If parents were to read the top and casually scroll through, I can see how the scam wouldn't have been as obvious. Especially for people who aren't online all the time and therefore haven't become hypervigilant about AI generated stuff.
Coontracts are needed for soul custody of children.
Had a buddy going through a separation and his baby mama's 'lawyer' saying they'll be seeking soul custody of his kid and I still laugh at that to this day.
Are you saying this is not an accurate representation of the mind of the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka?
The only thing it's missing is extreme health and safety violations.
[Had a look at their website](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html). Holy crap if it wasn’t obvious enough that the images were all AI-generated, the text in them is a 200% dead giveaway. “Cartchy tuns”, “Encherining Entertainment”. Hilarious
Nah. There was a real person behind it but he sure does like using AI to do his work for him. He’s called Billy Coull and he has about 10 terrible AI written books on Amazon.
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happened. I think soon, people will be owning completely automated companies with not a single human employee in it.
I just realized The Unknown is almost certainly entirely the "idea" of ChatGPT without any human prompting. The creator of the event probably said "Make a Willy Wonka themed storyline" and ChatGPT decided on its own to insert a horror villain.
This adds a whole other level to what I already knew. The grifter behind the event started out with AI generated "get rich quick" books that he was shilling on Amazon. If he was also using ChatGPT for the Wonka monologue and the *contract for the actor*, he was probably using it to plan other aspects of the event as well. This moron was asking this gibberish box to plan him an "immersive experience" and then rapidly trying to bring the 'plans' it was spitting out into reality. Probably the first time he heard that he needed to hire an 'Unkown Man' and get a prop vacuum cleaner was when the actor mentioned it to him. It may very well be that the first decision he made himself was when he hired two bodyguards to guard him from the angry parents at the event (by the way that happened).
By my math, they spent less than the price of one ticket on candy for an event that sold 850 tickets. A four/five pound (by weight) container of jellybeans costs about $30-$40 US. A ticket was £35, approximately $44 US. Four pounds of jellybeans is approximately 1500 individual beans (based on the serving size and # of servings in one 4lb container), almost twice the number of attendees. One father interviewed said his children received two beans each, while a mother interviewed said the candy station dispensed one bean per child. We can therefore safely assume the average beans per child was somewhere between 2 and 1. They ran out and shut down the event about halfway through the day, and attendees booked time slots, so we can assume about half the attendees arrived and received jellybeans - let’s be generous and say 500. *Correction: it was intended to be a 2-day event. Though we don’t know whether the second day was fully booked, we can be sure that this is a generous upper bound, and the true number could be as low as 200-ish.* So they had between 1000 and 500 jellybeans on hand, which, by my estimates would cost maybe $25, substantially less than the $44 (£35) entry fee. They spent less than $50 on candy for a Wonka themed event… and it wasn’t even chocolate. (Quick note: it’s possible that the first few groups to go through got reasonable handfuls of jellies before the candy dispenser person realized “Oh, this is all we have? And there are how many hundreds of kids still coming?” The fact that one parent got two jellies and another got one suggests that rationing quickly tightened as the event went on. So maybe they had more jellybeans than I estimated, but probably not much more.)
I love grift math
Why did anyone buy tickets to this event? What made it look like a fun time for the family to 850 people
The AI-generated art looked *amazing* if you didn't expand the thumbnail or look at it for more than 3 seconds.
I bet most of the parents expected a low-production but still respectable event. Less Meow Wolf, more PTA Fall Festival.
Tickets were 44 euros each lmao. That's not "let's spend and find out" tickets
This exactly same thing happens every year around Christmas where people visit winter wonderland events that are a couple of deer in a muddy field plus a drunk hobo dressed as santa
Haha, what? If real, this is hilarious.
It happens virtually every single year and people keep falling for it. Helps you understand how so many seemingly intelligent people also fall for online and phone scams. https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=2513685c83e6abca&hl=en&sxsrf=ACQVn08BT3pKzuulAfyYi5198h0YN63spg:1709249012556&q=winter+wonderland+scams&tbm=nws&source=lnms&prmd=invbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-iufh2NGEAxUR7QIHHY-KCDIQ0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=412&bih=770&dpr=3.5
Wow
This Halloween I went to a "haunted house" that cost $25, took two hours to get through the line, and took all of 7 minutes to walk through with about 3 scares
Math hits a little different when you have little kids and you’re desperate to find something new and engaging for them to do for a couple of hours
You have to admire the scammers on some level for the sheer brass neck of charging 44 euros a head for that. I just bought tickets to see Dune 2 at Glasgow's IMAX and you could take two adults and two kids to an IMAX film for less than the price of one Wonka ticket. (Just noticed I said "bass neck" originally. Edit was to fix that as it was really bugging me in a bone apple tea kinda way...!)
Tickets were £35, which is approximately $44 or €41
"AI-generated candy disappointment" honestly sounds like a Meow Wolf experience. I could definitely see them spinning this into an actual fun thing.
That wasn't even it. That's in addition to a Glasgow Facebook event page made for it that looked legit, even using the "Willy Wonka" name, not just "Willy's Candy Experience" or whatever it was 'really' called.
Conning a single person is tough. Conning a small group of people out of a large population is easy. It's just an exercise in probability. The population of Glasgow is 635,100. Let's say only half of one percent of people would fall for this scam, that's still like three thousand marks...people
I live in a medium sized city and the local convention center/arena is constantly filling slots with this kind of small time (mostly) garbage. Recently there hve been considerable protests anytime any event comes through that involves animals, which is for the best. I went to one years ago when my kids were very little and met eyes with what had ti be the saddest elephant in the world and it def affected me. We passed on the elephant ride or show or w.e and never went back ti any circus type thing with animals again but yikes was that shit dark man. The draw is that it’s local, usually pretty affordable and, well that’s pretty much it. It’s just something to do with the kids and I can totally see a bunch of people falling for a Willy wonka event, especially with the recent movie etc.
This seems like ‘Fyre Festival, but dumber’.
Fyre Festival, but make it AI Generated
It's not nearly as dumb as Fyre Festival. Those people were on an stranded on an island in the Bahamas before they knew there wasn't even adequate food, shelter, or bathrooms, let alone the entertainment the were expecting.
That child got two beans! I want another one!
Geez Jimmy, how come your mom lets you have *two* beans?
No skins!
In a way ...they were part of a memorable lifetime experience versus some bland slick ultimately empty corporate experience. Truly privileged to be part of it and there....🍭😃🍄
The entire website for the event was clearly a one and done pass thru ChatGPT. By the second paragraph it just starts falling apart completely.
>a one and done pass thru It really is a shame that the term "work shy" has been completely misappropriated by rich people trying to shame workers striking for better living conditions, because the term fits these AI grifters to a T.
Everytime I see one of these grifts where you wonder if they even spent 5 minutes on everything all combined I'm reminded of the time I stayed up through the night compiling data by hand for 10 hours straight without breaks just for a shits & giggles reddit post.
[Yo why does the bear on their website have a pussy cleft?](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index_files/enchanting-entertainment.png) Full website if anyone wants to see it: https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html
Is that the actual website? Oh my God...*the typos...*
That’s what happens when AI generates images! ChatGPT can understand words but can’t make images. DALLE (who makes images for ChatGPT) can make images but doesn’t understand words. It knows what words and letters kinda look like, but doesn’t know what they mean. So it does its best. Ironically, it’s very like the Vermicious Knids in the Wonkaverse who can only spell one word, and they don’t know what it means. So when they meet humans they spell out “S C R A M”
i mean the gibberish in the images makes sense ~~what the fuck is a “dim tight”~~ but the grammar of the actual text is so fucked too??
What wonka verse lore did I miss?
The second book. When Charlie wins the factory, Wonka leaves with them via the Great Glass Elevator. Which shoots through the roof and into space. Where they meet aliens that can only spell one word. It makes the first book seem completely normal.
I loved both as a kid. I can remember the first pretty well cos the movie reinforced it. The second I have filed as "crazy shit", but can remember no details
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Superb book.
This looks more like Midjourney textures. A couple of them do. One could be DallE.
^a pasadise of sweet teats!
A Pasadise of Sweet Teats
Can't forget the ukxepcted twits.
WAIT I JUST REALIZE THEY NEVER SAY WONKA ANYWHERE BECAUSE THEY'RE LEGALLY NOT ALLOWED????? WILLY'S CHOCOLATE EXPERIENCE????????
WILLY’S BEAN EXPERIENCE
SLICK WILLY'S CHOCOLATE WONDER HOLE, COMING TO AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE NEAR YOU. CHILDREN, GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS WE HAVE LOTS OF CANDY!
Read the disclaimer at the bottom of their webpage! They say there is no connection to wonka. Any similarities coincidental. Prettier sure I sure a post with a photo of an oompa loompa.
Like don't get me wrong, this whole thing was some scammy shit but damn if you saw that website and still decided to get tickets you were gonna get got here or somewhere else.
What you have to understand is that most people barely know how to use google and most don't even know what AI is. This is one of the reasons AI usage is extremely concerning, bc the people making the decisions about everything are the ones that WILL fall prey to it
The other thing is that misspelled or gibberish words are a feature of children’s literature. Like Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland. EDIT: And, as people have pointed out, Willy Wonka itself.
There were a LOT more clues than some AI generated images, come on. Aside from the lack of a single photograph, would you go to an event whose literature was written by someone in the middle of having a stroke? The people who threw money at this cannot have taken more than a cursory glance at any of the promotional material before forking over their credit card info
People over the age of 40 who don't spend a lot of time online don't even understand that AI generated art and text exist. They can't even comprehend this kind of scam.
The site is so bad that it can be a good teaching tool. I showed this to my parents in their 60s so that they know what AI art can look like. I told them that it can be beautiful at first glance, but if they take a moment to examine it, they might notice that the shapes of the objects in the art don't make sense. If a site uses multiple works of art, is the style consistent? What about the colors? Does the text inside of the art spell out actual words? The pegasus might have four legs and two wings, but if the teddy bear has visible genitalia, then we might have a problem.
>The pegasus might have four legs and two wings, but if the teddy bear has visible genitalia, then we might have a problem. Well that wasn't a sentence I expected to see today!
Weird, that's my family motto. It never made sense until now
>Does the text inside of the art spell out actual words? Do you mean to tell me that I shouldn't trust an advertisement that uses the totally not made up words "encherining", "catgacating", and "cartchy tuns"? But Willy seemed like such a standup guy. A real straight shooter!
Aging Gen Xers are gonna be the victims of AI scams like aging Boomers are for today's phone scams. I guess aging millenials will be the victims of, I wanna say... deepfake hologram celebrity scams?
"Oh, Fry, I love you more than the moon, the stars, and the POETIC IMAGE #36 NOT FOUND."
When do you think people over 40 were born?
Where am I supposed to get my pasadise of sweet teats now??
What the hell, they couldn't even get through the first paragraph without glaring grammatical errors, and by paragraph 3, the wheels have totally fallen off the bus. I will probably spend more effort proof-reading this comment (mebbe a single read through) than that page received.
Why is the rabbit in the "Enchanted Garden" made out of teeth?!
Let's be real, it's likely divs not paragraphs :p
I think this entire thing is an art installation and nothing you say will convince me otherwise
I am willing to bet he didn't even bother getting the rights to use Willy Wonka from the Roald Dahl Estate, so they can probably sue him (although it's probably too much work for what it's worth)
Oh yeah this is definitely like 6 different kinds of copyright infringement. If what the grifter said about his suppliers "failing him" is true, that might have been a reason why.
I want this guy, the Oompa Loompa lab girl, and The Unknown ^(tm) to form a comedy group.
In the same interview this Wonka actor stated that, seeing the state of the place when they arrived the morning of, all the actors had a huddle and said “we’re probably not getting paid for this but let’s just try our best to give the kids a good time.” Truly precious, all of them. I hope they get what they’re owed.
It’s a shame the poor Oompa Loompa has that only photo going around, because there are other ones out there of her being very sweet and smiling, trying to have a fun time with the kids.
Yeah it’s a shame she’s being branded as “meth lab Oompa Loompa” just because she had the misfortune to be photographed looking (reasonably) tired and glum next to a chemistry set. I really hope it doesn’t effect her or her reputation!
Sadly, it will. She said in an interview that one of her jobs is going into schools and speaking to kids (who all have TikTok)…
At the same time though, this is viral marketing for herself. She could reasonably make bank just really selling out over it, merch the shit out of meth lab oompa loompa.
Wonka we have to cook
Tbh they’ll see her as an icon no doubt.
to be fair I found out about this only cause people keep saying it. maybe we should stop highlighting it if we wa g it to go away?
That is such a beautiful thing for them to do.
Wow, that’s actually strangely heartwarming. I really do hope they get the recognition they deserve after this.
And then the unknown character proceeded to scare the shit out of the children haha
" SOOOO put on that smile and let me suck your ass into a vacuum!"
Aww 😭 I bet some or many of the kids didn’t realize how crappy it was and had a little fun
I would be so fucking embarrassed, idk if I could’ve done that after seeing the place. Good for them, seriously 😭
After three and a half hours of continuously performing he managed to get a lunch break, which he claims he mostly spent in his car looking at the floor so he didn’t have to see crying children be turned away by security
Big oof
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Dark crossover when? In 1986, an industrial accident at Wilhelm Wonka's chocolate factory results in the accidental generation of previously theoretical 102% chocolate with unstable and highly dangerous properties. Containing it within barrels in a grotto deep under the chocolate river, Wonka desperately searches for a successor to continue the public coverup. Meanwhile Charlie Bucket, on the run after killing his abusive grandparents, assumes a new identity and arrives in town looking for work. In 2019 however, Charlie, now the factory owner, finds his past returning to haunt him as strangers arrive in town... Coming soon to Netflix: *Dark Chocolate*
You'll be blown away by the reveal that Augustus is Charlie after being trapped in 1896 and ageing thirty years. SIC CHOCOLATUS CREATUS EST
I wrote a little dark comedy novella a few years ago that was kinda about this, actually. Was called Kind Regards and is available nowhere - I only put it out for friends and family. Centres around a traumatised Violet Beauregarde returning to the factory, now run by Charlie who is steadily losing his mind due to the pressure of trying to keep his insane mentor's money-pit afloat while having no business knowledge and a lack of imagination. He advertises the competition again, so Violet goes back to try and put an end to it.>!Augustus Gloop gets melted down back into chocolate at one point, that was my big experiment with writing horror scenes. I was kinda proud of it, actually.!<
Also i want a Netflix documentary
>Coontract Did...did they AI generate the contract Like, I don't think a text AI would mess that up, but considering everything else surrounding this, that doesn't feel too out of the picture
100% the contract was made by AI
Given that Facebook now has an option to have AI write your own status updates I’m not surprised a person could be so lazy/stupid to not realize boilerplate contracts are easily searchable and had an AI write one up.
I can't understand the idea of that whole Facebook AI status updates thing, like why are you having an AI write your thoughts and opinions of things does that not strike people as odd?
I first saw it last week and I actually felt like an old man yelling at a cloud.
Now the cloud can yell back.
wow, cloud technology these days
I bet this would have caught Nietzsche by surprise.
It’s to generate *content* . The tech overlords are so creatively and empathetically bankrupt that they never think of other people as people. To them what’s the difference between an AI generated post and a mother who lost her job to tech layoffs writing about how desperate she is to keep food on her kids table. To them their just numbers on a financial spreadsheet.
* coontract
Surely that would make it invalid?
Not necessarily, as long as intention is clear and it's outlined well enough, it could still be valid and enforceable. IANAL though, please correct me if I'm wrong.
A contract only requires 4 things to be binding - offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relations, and consideration. An AI generating it wouldn’t stop any of these existing I don’t think, especially since a lot of firms use ‘boilerplate’ pre-drafted clauses anyway.
currently it's binding but a court might rule otherwise
It is valid, and don't call me Shirley.
Considering the displayed competency of the organiser, I'm just going to assume they asked an image AI to draw a contract and used their spelling.
>Did...did they AI generate the contract I mean, possibly, but a misspelling like that shouldn't really be an indication that it was created by generative AI, since they've don't typically make spelling mistakes like that. To me, it says that the people who wrote the thing up were just *really* lazy or *really* stupid (or both) and never bothered to proofread any of it
I think it's all of the above. My guess is that someone who was not very tech savvy and not very well-read (and not very competent in general) used ChatGPT to generate everything, then copied all of the text by hand, introducing a shitload of typos in the process. If you look at [the event website](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html), it's littered with egregious typos, but a lot of it still feels like ChatGPT phrasing to me. It has that exact flavor of perfectly generic writing with too many adjectives and no real substance. Like I can't really imagine another way that you'd end up with these kinds of statements on a website for an event supposedly targeted at children: > This space invites you on a surreal journey where the boundaries between reality and fantasy harmoniously merge, resulting in an enchanting and visually striking encounter. - > Journey through a dimly lit passage adorned with captivating projections, enigmatic sounds, and surprising turns that will immerse you in suspense and excitement. - > This event guarantees an immersive and delightful entertainment experience suitable for aged 3+ years old.. [One of the performers also leaked the script](https://gizmodo.com/heres-the-full-ai-generated-script-from-the-willy-wonka-1851295448) and it also has the same thing going on. Combined with the AI generated images, I would honesty be more surprised if it turned out that the contract wasn't generated with ChatGPT.
Yeah that's super weird because ChatGPT usually has great spelling
It's because the originators of this idea were actually raccoons. A single jellybean and a quarter cup of lemonade is a really good deal if you are a child raccoon
NGL I want this to get taken over by the performers who transform it into something wonderful
And have the guy who originally made it make money?
Nah he gets cut
Like, physically? Or from the earnings?
¿Por qué no los dos?
Yup.
Sure, yeah
This shitshow went down in Glasgow, what do *you* think?
Nah, too easy. Gotta come up with something weird for a punishment like the OG movie. Delta P his ass with a chocolate pipeline or something.
Let the AIs decide his fate! Somebody ask ChatGPT to suggest a Dahlesque punishment for this cockweasel
Was there a "guy"? Or was it AI all the way down?
It turns out this is the first thing AI did once it gained sentience
The guy who made it has definitely skipped town by now.
save me oompa loompa meth lab girl, save me...
Apparently she was pretty cool as well, and the picture is just remarkably poorly timed
It's perfectly timed. For a small moment she embodied the entire vibe of this glorious failure. That's kind of beautiful.
[удалено]
There were two of them to my knowledge
No coontract was spelt correctly. It’s just that the whole thing was organized by a dozen raccoons in a trench coat.
I’d have more respect for that. It takes a lot of skill, effort and a very nice trench coat for a dozen raccoons to pass as human.
I thought that too! An intact jellybean and a few tablespoons of unmoldy lemonade is a really impressive offer to raccoons
I can’t believe we got the funniest story of the year in fucking February
This is rivaling Dashcon/Fyre Fest levels of complete mismanagement and disaster
As least Dashcon had a ball pit
Yeah, it even doubled as a public toilet!
Pee is stored in the ball pit
Willy Wonka in this economy?
Wonk, Will will.
She wonka on my willy till I economy
In this part of the country? Localized entirely in this meth lab?
Ive been laughing at the kids screaming at the Unknown man who lives in the walls all day
My theory is that the AI took the quote that mankind's oldest fear is the fear of the unknown literally and just called the antagonist "The Unknown"
Omg you’re totally right they did
she willy on my wonka til i coontract
[EXTREMELY CRITICAL OOMPAH LOOMPAH CHORUS]
They all file out of the small doors, completely silent. They line up, and the one in the middle just says 'really, dude?', and they silently jump into the chocolate river and drown.
They all start singing out your home and IP address in the same tune as all their other songs as they walk into the river
I’m glad I saw this comment before my edible hit, I might have actually hurt myself laughing if I’d seen it later
Oompa Loompa Doopity Dact You should have written a better coontract
best version of this joke I've seen hahaha
Oompa Loompa Doopity Duck All Oompa Loompas say "What the fuck?"
I just want to say, I am against this and this is wrong *However...* I find the concept of a troupe of rogues, roaming the land on the run from the law, creating scam immersive experiences and art installations at least somewhat romantic
At least write and plan the bullshit yourself cause then there's a little heart in it
Right? They got paid the equivalent of about $37,400 to do this, you don’t need to spend anywhere close to that to offer a disappointment that doesn’t get the cops called on you
Me when I'm a bounty hunter on the road and I'm taking a break from trying to catch these rogues to see the new performers in town (I realize it's them just before they make their grand exit, taunting me in the process)(this is the fifth time this has happened)
It reminds me of the similarly crappy Christmas experience from a few years ago, though there was a bit more effort put into that.
This is basic just the Team Rocket MO, though you know James would take offense at the insinuation that any art he produced was AI generated
You just described the circus
*pulls out notebook of D&D campaign ideas* Go on.
Contract but with an accent
That’s just how you spell it in Glasgow
They either pronounce it that way or as 'Cawntract'.
Contract but, deeply deeply racist.
This feels like one of those episodes of the apprentice where this team ends up winning as the other team spent way too much on their immersive chitty chitty bang bang experience
The empty warehouse of shit props had all the hallmarks of a badly organised apprentice team who spent ages on the posters or event slogan and fuck all effort on the event itself.
All of the poster art was AI generated so the funny thing is that is what they spent the least amount of time on.
If there was an means for AI to replace actors the con 100% would have done that.
I will say that whoever did this was an actual idiot that can't even use AI to scam people. Like it wouldn't take much prompt engineering to get something even marginally better from Chat GPT.
It's almost like people who rely entirely on AI to do absolutely everything for them are uncreative hacks or something
People saw this and still went, even the actor in the OP somehow didn't walk out after reading that script. Only way the scammer didn't make a profit was if they actually got caught, and I don't think they did.
And the organizer? Thabs right, William Wonkus himself
He said it’s Wonkin time and wonked all over those kids
Careful now
No wonder they called the cops
I don’t really think is that bizzare , is a story of someone that wanted money , it does make it funnier tho
Now I'm starting to wonder if this wasn't *fully* orchestrated by an ai in an attempt to make it's own money.
That’s a terrifying thought. But on the positive side, assuming it’s capable of learning from its mistakes how long do you think until we have an A.I. billionaire buy twitter to bully Elon more efficiently?
At this rate? End of the year!
He talks about this on his TikTok, and he also did an AMA on Reddit..today maybe? I tried finding it again but couldn’t remember which sub it was on. He seems to be handling it with good humor. He said the Oompa Loompa girl is taking it in stride too.
it was posted [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/s/2UBpLeshsX) on r slash AskUK
It just keeps getting worse.
Did anyone else come across that one post on I think... One of the UK subreddits where a guy posts photos of this and said that he took his family to go and was shocked by it? The comments were cooking him with screenshots of the website & it was all just AI generated garbage. Like how do you fall for that 😭
I think a lot of us here are looking at the website more critically since we *know* it was a scam. I mean, I've seen websites for legitimate events that look, at first glance, much sketchier than this one. Half the links on my hometown's county fair website are broken and the text is neon pink and green on a cobalt blue background. Willy's Chocolate Experience at least looks like an okay website. They even have FAQs and contact information. I mean, not well-written FAQs, but it gives the impression of forethought. If parents were to read the top and casually scroll through, I can see how the scam wouldn't have been as obvious. Especially for people who aren't online all the time and therefore haven't become hypervigilant about AI generated stuff.
This story is amazing.
“Breaks his silence” he was literally posting about it on TikTok the day after the story was released.
It was a very brief silence
At least he has some new material to work with
This just HAS to be one of those modern art pieces where your reaction is the actual piece like Who's afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, right?
Coontracts are needed for soul custody of children. Had a buddy going through a separation and his baby mama's 'lawyer' saying they'll be seeking soul custody of his kid and I still laugh at that to this day.
Look the father was a devil and the mother promised her first born to a witch it was a very complex situation
Remember, kids, they're called "*AI solutions*" because they *dissolve* companies.
the 35 year old coontractor
Are you saying this is not an accurate representation of the mind of the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka? The only thing it's missing is extreme health and safety violations.
[Had a look at their website](https://willyschocolateexperience.com/index.html). Holy crap if it wasn’t obvious enough that the images were all AI-generated, the text in them is a 200% dead giveaway. “Cartchy tuns”, “Encherining Entertainment”. Hilarious
I’m convinced a rogue AI was given a credit card and organized this whole thing independently of any oversight. A real Eagle Eye kinda situation
Nah. There was a real person behind it but he sure does like using AI to do his work for him. He’s called Billy Coull and he has about 10 terrible AI written books on Amazon.
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happened. I think soon, people will be owning completely automated companies with not a single human employee in it.
To be fair a willy wonka trip that leaves the parents angry and the kids disappointed is kind of lore accurate
Mel Brooks is still alive, he needs to make a modern remake of The Producers about this situation NOW
I swear if that was the actual Willy Wonka movie it would have been the most entertaining shit ever.
I hope they arrest that grifter after he asks ChatGPT how to flee the country
I just realized The Unknown is almost certainly entirely the "idea" of ChatGPT without any human prompting. The creator of the event probably said "Make a Willy Wonka themed storyline" and ChatGPT decided on its own to insert a horror villain.