--- title: "AI-Powered Clock Sometimes Hallucinates the Wrong Time" description: "Meet Poem/1, an AI-powered clock that tells time in rhyming poetry. Just one catch: it'll sometimes make things up — the time included." date: "2024-02-04" modified: "2024-02-04" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-clock-sometimes-hallucinates" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "clocks" - "hallucination" - "the digest" --- # AI-Powered Clock Sometimes Hallucinates the Wrong Time ![Meet Poem/1, an AI-powered clock that tells time in rhyming poetry. Just one catch: it'll sometimes make things up — the time included.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Poem/1 Calling all investors with a soft spot for rhyming poetry and a blind spot for punctuality! If you'd rather exchange a firm understanding of what time it actually is for a two-line verse on the minute, every minute — well, we've got just the thing. As [*Ars Technica* reports](), product developer Matt Webb launched a [Kickstarter campaign]() yesterday to fund Poem/1, an AI-powered clock that communicates the time in rhyming poetry. There's a new poem every minute, meaning that the clock — which runs on the ChatGPT API — puts out a staggering 1,440 new poems each and every day. It's a neat idea! Except, as Webb himself warns in his Kickstarter, there's a bit of a catch. "It's sometimes profound, and sometimes weird," reads the inventor's post, "and occasionally it fibs about what the actual time is to make a rhyme work." https://twitter.com/genmon/status/1752277598002880683 ## Vibe Check Webb provides several examples of the botclock's bizarre little outputs throughout the Kickstarter page, all of which are admittedly quite charming. One verse, for example, which tells onlookers that it's "11:51, time to be bold, /Minutes tick by, stories untold," might serve as a sweet and motivational reminder of the inherent magic of the passing moment. Another, exclaiming that "it's almost noon, don't be a loon! / Can't you see the sun shining high as a balloon?" veers more to towards the nonsensical camp, but it's delightful nonetheless. And yet, amusing as these rhymes may be, there's still that hallucination problem. In an accompanying promotional video, Webb amusingly documents a moment where the clock, at half past four, reads: "A clock that defies all rhyme and reason / 4:30 PM, a temporal teason." And while here, the clock does get the *time* right, another detail is way off. "I had to look teason up — it doesn't mean anything," Webb tells the camera. "So it's a made-up word." The clock's weaknesses, in other words, cut to the heart of our current AI moment. A clock that makes up unique rhymes about the time is a fun concept, but fabricating words or switching up the actual time of day mitigate**s** its actual usefulness. You know what, though? Time, shmime. The vibes of Poem/1 still rock, and time's but an illusion, anyway. We want this crazy little clock! **More on AI:** [*Chatbots Are Developing an Understanding of the World, Scientists Claim*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()