AI Speech

A One Scene Play for Two Actors

by

C. Shaun Wagner

Copyright ©2024 by C. Shaun Wagner
May be performed without license fee for educational purposes.
No license required for non-profit performances.
For commercial productions, please contact the author.

Email: cs@kainaw.com

Cast of Characters

Alex:A person who is writing a speech for their sister's wedding. May be any gender.
Bob:Alex's friend. May be any gender.

I-1-1

ACT I

Scene 1

SETTING:Alex's living room.
AT RISE:Alex is using a laptop computer.

(BBB enters.)

Bob

What are you doing now? Please tell me it's not another AI-generated smoothie recipe.

Alex

Nope! This is better. I'm having ChatGPT write my speech for my sister's wedding.

Bob

(Alarmed) You're trusting a robot with the biggest speech of your life?

Alex

Correction: I'm collaborating with a language model trained on the entire internet. It's like having all of Shakespeare, Oprah, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson writing with me.

Bob

Wow. That's a terrifying committee.

I-1-2

Alex

Okay, here it is. Version one. (Clears throat. Reading) "Dear newlyweds. Marriage is like a computer... Sometimes it crashes, sometimes it updates unexpectedly, but mostly, it needs regular debugging and snacks."

Bob

(Laughs) Oh my god.

Alex

There's more.

Alex

(Reading) "And just like I downloaded this speech from the cloud, may your love always sync... unless your Wi-Fi is weak."

Bob

Is it trying to be romantic or giving marriage advice from inside a printer?

Alex

It's edgy! Quirky! I asked it to be 'relatable to millennials.'

Bob

Millennials aren't printers.

Alex

Okay, okay. I'll tweak the prompt. Let's go heartfelt. "Write a touching best man speech."

I-1-3

Bob

That's good. That's what you need.

Alex

(Reading new result) "Because you have expressed a strong interest in possible relationships between Pixar characters..."

Bob

Interest in what?

Alex

(Pushing through with the speech) "Once upon a time, there was a lonely shoe. And then... another shoe. Together, they became a pair."

Bob

No. Stop. Strong interest in possible relationships between Pixar characters?

Alex

Of course not.

Bob

So, the AI is just hallucinating that?

Alex

Well, I wouldn't say it's a strong interest. I just wonder, you know, what if Lightning and Eve had a hot weekend in Radiator Springs?

I-1-4

Bob

The racecar and the robot?

Alex

Exactly. They're both machines, so they should be able to...

Bob

(Interrupting) No. Stop.

Alex

It isn't weird. Look, Lightning McQueen has a mouth, right? But do you ever see him eat? No. He just gets pumped up by Flo. That's fuel, not food.

Bob

He's a car.

Alex

A car with a mouth that he doesn't use to eat, so maybe he uses it for...

Bob

(Interrupting) Stop! Seriously. I don't need that visual in my head!

Alex

But, it can be romantic, like here, it continues: "Sometimes love is just finding the one who fits, even if you're Velcro and they're laces."

I-1-5

Bob

I seriously can't. Your sick mind has me thinking of shoes, you know, doing it.

Alex

(Laughs) I kind of love it.

Bob

Did it just use your past prompts to... (pause for effect) emotionally manipulate you?

Alex

(Joking) OK. So I may have cried a little when the left shoe got lost and the right one had to find it.

Bob

We're losing the battle against the machines.

Alex

Alright. Last try. I'll make it "funny, heartfelt, and appropriate for a wedding."

Bob

I have a bad feeling about this.

Alex

(Types rapidly. Pauses. Reads.) "To the bride: I've known you since we were kids. You once tried to eat sand because you thought it was seasoning."

I-1-6

Bob

Wait... is that true?

Alex

No! ChatGPT made that up! It's inventing fake memories!

Bob

It's hallucinating your childhood.

Alex

It even says, "I remember the day we got stuck in a vending machine together."

Bob

You and your sister and a vending machine?

Alex

It's like it's trying to make me interesting by making me a cartoon character.

Bob

Honestly, this speech is gonna make you sound like an unreliable narrator.

Alex

Fine. I'll just wing it. Use bullet points.

Bob

Use memories that happened.

I-1-7

Alex

But the shoes... they found each other, just like Mater and Mike Wazowski.

Bob

Mat... What?

Alex

(Scrolling on laptop) I wrote a whole play about it called "M and M."

Bob

(Grabbing the laptop) No more Pixar. No more vending machines. You are grounded from AI.

Alex

At least let me ask it what kind of toast is best for a wedding.

Bob

If it says "gluten-free," I'm throwing the laptop out the window.

Alex

OK. OK. But, I really need to know how to end.

Bob

End?

I-1-8

Alex

Like with anything, a speech, a book, a play... I never know how to bring it to an end.

Bob

(Typing and then reading) It says you should say "thank you" and wait for your audience to clap.

Alex

Like this? (to the audience) Thank you.

Bob

(Long pause) I think that sort of worked.

(END OF SCENE)