Crochet Patterns Created by ChatGPT Are Creepy

Are you always looking for good crochet patterns? The Guardian recently reported that ChatGPT is capable of producing real crochet patterns. Sounds amazing, right?

Put your hook, down. We need to talk about this.

The Guardian article tells us crocheter, Alexandra Woolner, created a viral TikTok with a first attempt using a ChatGPT-generated crochet pattern. The OpenAI chatbot was prompted for a walrus crochet pattern. The finished product ended up being…not a walrus, exactly. But it did sort of look like a sea creature.

@generatedcrochet

It’s cursed and I love it. #AI #crochet #narwhal #knit #WorstedWAITaminute

♬ original sound – Generated Crochet

Woolner told the Guardian, “The consensus among people who have seen it is that it looks wrong and ugly, but also very cute.”

So, yeah. The animal had ginormous eyeballs and colossal tusk. It’s disturbing, miscalculated, grotesque even. Yet, something about it does stir feelings of protection–like getting E.T. away from devious government agents.

Woolner’s opinion was fully backed.

And a massive creator actually chimed in too!

Image Credit: TikTok

And, folks are skeptical about this new-fangled tech.

Image Credit: TikTok

Since the TikTok went viral, Woolner has expanded it into a series of terrifying, yet oddly alluring, ChatGPT crochet projects. And, while the patterns don’t produce anything you’d want in your home, it does bring to mind the fact that this is technology for predicting. So perfectly recalling a crochet pattern of an adorable teddy bear for your bed is not its special purpose. At best, you’ll get an approximation of the teddy bear’s details in a disordered version, which you may like. Who knows?

Like how Woolner’s walrus “came out shockingly very accurate while still being very, very wrong. It’s a weird mix, kind of an uncanny valley.”

Even Guardian copy editor, Diana Ramirez-Simon, had to give it a try. “After I finished the head, it was pretty apparent that this was not going to be anything resembling an animal in nature,” she said of her own ChatGPT-designed crochet walrus-animal-thingie.

“My daughter named him Blinky, because he can’t blink,” she said. “His eyes are too big.”

Sounds adorably awful.