Below is a fictional story about Jerry, Sam Bankman-Fried’s green octopus.
You may wonder why I wrote this. I was applying for a job in AI and was required to develop a story about SBF’s octopus without the help of AI tools. The story below is what I came up with. I was apprehensive to share, but my friend who read it told me I should, so here it is:
Jerry, SBF’s Green Octopus
It was November 8th, 2022, and for Jerry, Sam Bankman-Fried’s Green Octopus, it seemed like any other day. In his giant tank in one of the concealed Nassau, Bahamas offices, Jerry observed SBF engrossed in his video game, Mario Cart. Jerry often pondered what it would be like to have opposable thumbs on his eight arms to control four cars at once. He imagined himself racing against SBF, confident in his abilities. Despite his lack of friends, Jerry was fiercely competitive.
As the gaming was going on for a while, Jerry watched as other members of the FTX team would run into the room frantically trying to chat with SBF. Jerry could feel something big was happening at the office, but he was unsure what was happening. He could hear the members dressed in blue dresses and black suits coming in and yelling about an exchange falling apart and losing money. Though Jerry had no concept of money or cryptocurrency, he always wondered why the humans would get so worked up about it. Was it something they could eat? Why were the free humans spending all their time looking at screens rather than running around? If Jerry had the freedom outside his massive tank, like if he were back in the ocean, surely he wouldn’t be playing video games or watching TV all day.
Jerry wondered, what is freedom anyway? He had been in the tank so long that he had forgotten.
Suddenly, he overheard a conversation about the failing exchange and deducted that SBF was worried he could go to jail. SBF started talking directly to Jerry and was trying to explain the meaning. This made Jerry incredibly sad because, after the description, Jerry felt that he was in jail himself, as he was stuck in a tank, unable to swim around with his family and friends in the sea. He didn’t wish this for his owner, SBF, but he wondered if SBF went to jail, would he know how it felt to be Jerry for a day? Would SBF watch as the jail guards played Mario Cart or stared at a computer screen all day?
All this thinking made Jerry really tired. He could feel the stress. Thankfully, somebody in the office fed him some nice fish and crustaceans, and he was able to fall asleep.
Just another day for Jerry at the FTX office in the Bahamas.
Image Generation
I used Open AI’s DALL·E 3 to develop the image for this story.
Below are some of the other options it gave me.
This one felt too realistic but funny to see men in suits carting.
This image got the Bahamas part down but lacked other characters.
Learn More
You can learn more about AI tools such as Chat GPT here.
All the best,
Ariel
