Bill Simmons cuts ties with ChatGPT after fans gave his AI Roger Ebert reviews two thumbs down

Ringer founder Bill Simmons is ending his partnership with ChatGPT and, by extension, his running AI Roger Ebert bit. Simmons explained the decision to cut ties with the generative AI and chatbot behemoth OpenAI to Bloomberg, which was the first to report the end of Simmons ChatGPT-sponsored segments. “Last spring, we thought we could integrate AI research for baked-in content segments for a couple of our shows the way some of our competitors were doing (and also leagues like the NFL were doing)—I’m always going to try to be early instead of late on something,” Simmons said. “This time we learned almost immediately that those segments weren’t a fit for us—our audience just didn’t like them.”

After agreeing to push the technology and out of fear of being late to desecrating the memory of Roger Ebert, Simmons began playing around with OpenAI’s tools and also, wearing a hat bearing the logo of Anduril, on Ringer podcasts. On episodes of his ongoing tribute to movies he caught on cable, The Rewatchables podcast, Simmons began using ChatGPT to generate approximations of Roger Ebert’s opinion of films made after the critic’s death. In March, for instance, he asked ChatGPT to generate an Ebert-style review of The Nice Guys. 

“Roger Ebert sadly passed away in 2013,” Simmons says as he sets up the ChatGPT segment.

“You’re going to disgrace yourself by asking ChatGPT,” co-host Chris Ryans interjects.