Posted in AI and Creativity

When My Blog Became a Video: Testing NotebookLM’s “Video Overview”

Recently, I tried something new. I pasted the URL of this blog, The AI Grandad into NotebookLM, expecting maybe a tidy summary or a few notes. Instead, it gave me a video overview,  a short, narrated film that explained my own writing back to me.

Seeing my words turned into a video was oddly thrilling. It was as if my blog had been given a voice and a face, not mine, but recognisably of me. The phrasing, tone, and pacing all felt close to how I might have explained it in person.

That’s when I realised NotebookLM isn’t just another AI summariser. It’s a tool that can reinterpret your writing, not replace it, but present it in new, engaging ways.

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Posted in AI and Creativity

The Art of the Impossible Prompt

There are many people out there with fantastic theories of what makes the perfect prompt for AI chatbots, and I have tried quite a few of them. In fact I touched on this in a previous post, What Our Prompts Say About Us and How to Make Them Less Average.

But, today I woke up thinking, “What would happen if we gave our AI chatbots nonsense prompts?” So, I decided to give AI a headache. I fed it a collection of impossible prompts. The kind that would make even Lewis Carroll raise an eyebrow. Things like:

  • Describe the smell of tomorrow using only punctuation.
  • Tell me a story that makes sense when read backward but not forward.
  • Write a recipe for remembering something that never happened.

Yes, I know. Utter nonsense. And the results? We will come to that later in this post.

Continue reading “The Art of the Impossible Prompt”
Posted in AI and Creativity

When AI Does the Heavy Lifting, What’s Left for the Writer?

Every so often, I find myself watching the cursor blink, and the strangest thing happens. I type a prompt. The AI thinks for a moment. Then, as if conjured from nowhere, a fully formed short story appears on the screen. Sometimes, it even goes back and improves itself. It analyses tone, tightens the structure, sharpens the language.

And I sit there, cup of tea cooling beside me, wondering… where do I fit in now?

It’s a quiet sort of unease. When I first started writing, it was all mine, the hours spent choosing words, the quiet satisfaction of crafting a line that finally worked. The blank page was both enemy and companion. Now, the machine fills it in seconds.

So what does that make me? Redundant? Or something else entirely?

Continue reading “When AI Does the Heavy Lifting, What’s Left for the Writer?”
Posted in The AI Drabble Challenge

The Umbrella’s Confession: When AI Gives Everyday Objects a Voice

Sometimes, the fun of the weekly AI Drabble Challenge is seeing how far a single idea can go in 100-words. This week’s theme took an unexpected turn, an umbrella with a guilty conscience. Here’s what Claude came up with:

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Posted in Writing with AI

The Blorptickle Experiment: When AI Meets Nonsense

Every now and then, I like to give my AI a challenge that even I can’t predict the outcome of. This time, I asked ChatGPT to give me three completely made-up words. It obliged with BlorptickleSnindlewump, and Grathoon.

No meaning. No clues. Just three syllabic oddities plucked from the imagination.

I wanted to see what would happen if I asked the AI to connect them, to build a world around nonsense. Would it make sense of the senseless, or collapse into gibberish?

Here is the prompt I gave ChatGPT

Can you write a 200 word story where these three nonsense words – Blorptickle, Snindlewump and Grathoon are linked and serve as a prompt. Surprise me with your story.


Here’s what it came up with.


The Grathoon Accord

(A 200-word story written by AI)

The first Blorptickle arrived in my sink on a Tuesday, small, glowing, and humming the EastEnders theme through its pores. I assumed it was a hallucination. But by Wednesday, three more appeared, arguing about whose turn it was to exfoliate the Snindlewump.

The Snindlewump, for the record, lived in my bread bin. It spoke only in sighs, smelled faintly of lemon polish, and insisted it was my conscience. I disagreed. My conscience wouldn’t eat the toaster.

Then came the Grathoon, a towering, translucent being made of static and grammar corrections. It entered through the Wi-Fi and declared, in perfect BBC English, that my kitchen had been chosen as the site of the “Inter-Dimensional Treaty of Mild Inconveniences.”

By Thursday, negotiations were underway. The Blorptickles demanded equal fridge rights. The Snindlewump wanted peace, or possibly a sandwich. The Grathoon kept rewriting everyone’s statements for clarity.

On Friday, I woke to silence. Just crumbs, a faint lemon scent, and a note on the counter: “Treaty ratified. You were a surprisingly competent species.”

The kettle hasn’t worked since. But sometimes, if I listen closely, it hums the EastEnders theme, in perfect harmony.


Reflections from The AI Grandad

What fascinates me is how the AI took those three nonsense words and built a logic of its own. It didn’t just invent creatures, it created a miniature world with tone, rhythm, and even a sly British sense of humour.

To me, that’s the magic of experimenting with AI storytelling: the balance between absurdity and coherence. Give it chaos, and it will still try to make meaning.

And perhaps that’s a little like being human, constantly negotiating our own “Treaty of Mild Inconveniences.”

What Do You Think?

Could nonsense be a key to creativity, for humans and AI alike? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.


About The Author

Mike is a retired headteacher, writer, and lifelong learner exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping creativity, communication, and everyday life. Through The AI Grandad, he shares hands-on experiments, honest reflections, and a touch of humour about being 75 and still curious about the future.

When he’s not writing, Mike can usually be found testing new AI tools, reading crime fiction, or tucked away in a local coffee shop writing in his journal.