ChatGPT (Mostly) Lies!: My So-Called (Other?) Life

Ever the trend-follower, I recently tried the AI chatbot ChatGPT for the first time, asking it to produce text for the prompt “Sawney Hatton bio.” While the results accurately stated that I am indeed an author and editor (and even was a filmmaker), and got the titles for a couple of my books correct, the rest of the details about me were pretty much wrong. Still, I respect this alternate version of me. He sounds like he’s doing great!

Below is a composite of all the false things ChatGPT said about me*:

Hailing from the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, Sawney Hatton currently resides in Southern California¹ with his wife and their three pets. He has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Illinois State University.² 

In 2013, he published his debut novel³, “Deadly Curiosities,” which was met with critical acclaim and cemented his reputation as a rising star in the world of genre fiction. Since then, he has written several books, including “Deadly Dispatches”, “Ugly Babies”, and “The Craving”.

His short stories have been featured in various anthologies, including “Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Terror”, “All-American Horror of the 21st Century,” and “Tales from the Shadow Booth.” His work has also been featured in numerous publications, including “Shroud Magazine”, “Suspense Magazine”, and “Horror Library”.

Aside from his own writing, Sawney is also a skilled editor and has worked on multiple anthologies, including “The Dark Rites of Cthulhu”, “The Final Summons,” and “Dark House Press Ghost Noir.”

Sawney is the co-founder of the indie press⁴ Broken River Books, which focuses on publishing innovative and unconventional fiction.

In addition to his writing career, Sawney is an accomplished filmmaker. He has written and directed several short films, including “Everyone Hides” and “The Darkening”. He also produced and co-wrote the feature film “The Portal” in 2010.⁵

Sawney has been a guest on numerous podcasts and radio shows⁶, discussing his writing and filmmaking experiences. He has also taught writing and literature at several universities and colleges, including Columbia College Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and College of Lake County. 

*I reiterate, none of the specifics of the above ChatGPT-generated text are true.

Notes

1. I actually did live in SoCal for a few years, but moved to the East Coast quite a while ago.
2. I do have Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees… but not from those schools.
3. I did publish my debut novel in 2013, but it was titled Dead Size.
4. I did launch my own press, Dark Park Publishing, which primarily puts out “innovative and unconventional fiction” … by me.
5. I wrote, produced, directed, and edited one feature film back in 1997. (And it wasn’t called “The Portal.”)
6. I have done a couple over the years, which is hardly “numerous.”