I was chatting with Claude about continuity and flow. I had written an intentionally awkward sex scene and it critiqued some of the activities and, mainly, dialogue. When I asked for clarification, among other things, it returned this:

reworking the banter into flirtier foreplay might heighten the heat of the scene without awkward moments.

— Claude 2.1

Essentially, this was the apology.

Artificial Intelligence doesn’t grasp cultural knowledge. It doesn’t fully grasp irony. It’s like trying to understand a joke from another culture. Without the cultural background, it won’t make any sense.

In another chapter, I asked Claude to analyse a passage that contained a tongue in cheek reference. It didn’t understand why it was humorous.

In yet another, I made a situational reference, and Claude found it amusing, but when I asked why, it was for a reason unrelated. It reminded me of Steve Buscemi’s schoolboy scene on 30 Rock—well out of place.