Roasting Your Taste in Gear Might Be AI’s Best Party Trick Yet

People are asking ChatGPT to roast everything from the cars they drive to the watches they wear. True to the ask, the tool’s responses are both biting and hilarious. They also offer a window into the existing stereotypes that pervade any product subculture.

By Ben Bowers

Published August 27, 2024

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Updated August 27, 2024

We can strike yet another item off the list of skills we once thought were exclusive to human cognition.

It’s now clear that roasting, i.e., the form of comedy in which an individual is subjected to jokes at their expense, not the cooking method, is a task that AI is more than capable of handling.

Who deserves the original credit for testing ChatGPT’s roasting skills is anyone’s guess. The same goes for determining when the “I asked ChatGPT to roast my X” trend officially began, but it’s recent, at least relative to the fleeting attention span of the internet’s hive mind.

Asking ChatGPT to roast various products is an emerging social media trend

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the users white Ford Mustang — According to ChatGPT, high school never truly ended for Mustang owners.

A little light googling shows that just last week, major news outlets began publishing stories about a viral trend of people asking ChatGPT to roast their Instagram accounts, Spotify playlists and more.

But the trend’s evolution among product enthusiast communities on Reddit and Youtube has generated the most laughs among our team, intermixed with an occasional shiver of dad joke cringe.

Like most memes, the trend follows a familiar recipe

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s BMW motorcycle — ChatGPT is smart enough to recognize that retro styling and vintage coffee go quite nicely together.

As with many of the internet’s most resilient and ubiquitous jokes, the ChatGPT gear roasting trend is built around endless riffs on a familiar pattern.

It starts with a user uploading an image of a product they own to ChatGPT. The tool is then asked to roast the product shown in the photo, usually in just one paragraph. A screenshot showing the user’s uploaded photo and roast request, followed by ChatGPT’s succinct and sometimes withering response, is then uploaded for the rest of the community to relish.

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s White Rolex Explorer II — Apparently the Rolex Oyster bracelet is the equivalent now of dad jeans?

Like most things AI these days, sheer novelty is fueling most of the trend’s surging popularity. But any armchair psychologist worth their mail-order degree might spot deeper motivations here too.

There’s definitely a connection to humblebragging lurking somewhere. Flouting your cool possessions to like-minded peers is a prickly social challenge that can easily veer into showboating. But in at least in this unique case, such personal revelations can be softened by a thick layer of self-deprecating humor.

But it’s the way AI product roasts sarcastically poke at the terminology and tics of a particular product niche that feels like the real key ingredient in this viral user-generated content recipe.

But it’s the way AI gear roasts sarcastically poke at the terminology and tics of a particular product niche that feels like the real key ingredient in this viral user-generated content recipe.

After all, few things create a sense of bonding like being in on an inside joke. And while many of ChatGPT’s diss instincts feel on par with middle school bullies, there’s often at least one line in most that cuts deeper to those who obsess over the gear in question.

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s White New Balance sneakers — ChatGPT’s not the first entity to accuse New Balance shoes of old man energy. This user deserves extra credit for including the tube socks in the product shot.

The roasts effectively highlight the strengths and weaknesses of large language models

The uncanny ability of AI large language models to ingest, synthesize and remix the firehose of information sprinkled throughout the internet makes these ChatGPT roasts feel like the quiet parts of product culture are finally being said out loud. The truth is that most readers have probably seen similar statements made by peers before.

At the risk of getting too meta, a roast of ChatGPT’s gear roasting abilities seems pretty straightforward.

I tasked an army of Ph.D.s, billions of dollars, and warehouses’ worth of computing power to develop new disses, and all I got back were New Balance dad jokes.

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s Omega Seamaster watch — Sink diving seems slightly better than desk diving.

For now, ChatGPT product roasting is trending more in some product niches than others

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s Porsche 911 — Calling Porsche’s most iconic car a run-of-the-mill status symbol cuts especially deep.

Currently, the “roast my gear” trend appears to be going strong in various car and motorcycle communities. To date we’ve seen examples shared on everything from White Ford Mustangs, Dodge Trucks and Porsche 911s to BMW motorcycles.

But it’s also gaining steam among watch circles, including owners of Vacheron Constantin, Tudor, Rolex and Omega watches. We’re sure more digging would reveal even more use cases across a wider array of sub-communities.

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s Blancpain watch. — The 1960s nuclear warning poster joke shows just how much of a nerd ChatGPT really is.

Unsurprisingly, a few enterprising individuals are trying to capitalize on the trend like anything gaining exponential momentum online. There are now several specific “Roast My Product” ChatGPT apps, (known confusingly as GPTs in OpenAI’s software parlance) now in the company’s app store.

But it’s worth noting that all of the examples we’ve seen so far appear to be made using the standard version of ChatGPT, which anyone can use for free.

A screen shot showing a text thread between an individual and ChatpGPT asking ChatGPT to roast the user’s Dodge truck. — Stepping into Starbucks is better than driving through though, right?

Here’s what ChatGPT has to say about our work

Naturally, after stumbling across the trend, we had to get ChatGPT’s thoughts on our work here at Gear Patrol.

“Gear Patrol: where you can find a $3000 coffee maker that brews “artisan” coffee by precisely measuring the angle of the beans’ tumble and a $500 backpack that’s “adventure-ready” for a trip to the grocery store. It’s the site where everyday essentials get elevated to absurd levels of exclusivity, making you question if you need a $2000 knife to cut your avocado or if a regular kitchen knife might just do.”

Touché.