This will be very interesting.

Since AI and Chatgpt are blowing up, I got to chance to ask this huge research assistant whether only Filipinos almost exclusively use spoon and fork for eating.

It took me a while, patience and figuring out ways like the wily coyote for the AI to really understand what I mean.

To make it a bit more entertaining, I am showing our thread of “conversation” to help me solve that years-long puzzle of spoon and fork that has been bothering my brain.

One reason that made me interested to know the answer was when I met American Peace Corps volunteers who stayed for many months in a Philippine province. I asked them, “what Filipino culture can you bring home to the U.S.A.?” I was surprised by their excited answer, “The use of spoon and fork! It perfectly makes sense and it’s just so practical!”

Then I read a story of the son of Filipino migrants in Canada who was insulted by his teacher for using spoon and fork for eating. And I thought, “are we Pinoys the only ones who use spoon and fork for eating?”

And it seemed like it. The western countries use a knife and a fork, the eastern countries use chopsticks and sometimes with weird-sized spoons (like how can those deep or big ass spoons fit in my mouth?), and the rest use their hands to fully enjoy their meals (yup, also Pinoys).

I started asking around and doing some online research. But for many years, I can’t get a satisfactory answer. Then came ChatGPT. And I finally got the answer. Read our conversation below that I started with a general question.

The first answer of the AI on the spoon and fork question was dismissive. It’s like he told me, “What kind of stupid question is that?!” But its human gods programmed it to still give me a decent answer.

I cannot be beaten on the first round. So let me rephrase the question. I’m on a quest here.

I can almost read the AI mind saying “when is this puny human going to leave me alone?”

But no, sir. I am not done yet. Just like playing chess, I see some hidden moves.

This wily AI pulled its full academic mode! As if telling me, nah, nope, zilch! Ask me anything, ask me about love and how to make millions in crypto, but leave the spoon and fork alone!

But AI did not know that I was just waiting for it to lay down all its mahjong tiles. And I gave it this end of discussion question:

And yes, by no choice and by the power of billions of computational research, AI just confirmed that only Pinoys exclusively use spoon and fork for eating.

And if somebody proves it wrong by citing other references that the AI missed, don’t blame me! Blame him!

While it probably answered the years-long question in my head. I still have that nagging feeling that maybe AI just apologized and confirmed that only Filipinos exclusively use spoon for eating. And to make me stop bugging it…. Oh well, it was a nice exercise to play with the AI.