Most fellas know all too well the unfortunate experience of being on a date when suddenly the pressure to be entertaining and charming makes them lose the ability to form words. This quandary was a central plot point of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, a 19th-century play in which the title character famously feeds charismatic lines to Christian as Christian tries to woo the fair Roxane. One Stanford student seems to have run with this concept but replaced Cyrano with an AI-powered monocle that will feed helpless dudes stuff to say on dates.

Dubbed "RizzGPT" (named after the slang term rizz, which is short for "charisma," and not to be confused with the game of the same name), the monocle has been developed by Bryan Chiang, a student in Stanford's Computer Science department. Chiang tweeted a demo video of the monocle in action in March, and it began spreading on social media again after news of the prototype was tweeted by Reuters tech reporter Anna Tong.

say goodbye to awkward dates and job interviews ☹️

we made rizzGPT -- real-time Charisma as a Service (CaaS)

it listens to your conversation and tells you exactly what to say next 😱

built using GPT-4, Whisper and the Monocle AR glasses

with C51Alix</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/varunshenoy_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">varunshenoy_ pic.twitter.com/HycQGGXT6N

— bryan (@bryanhpchiang) March 26, 2023

As demonstrated by the demo video, RizzGPT is intended to come up with a serviceable response to a date partner's statement and give its wearer something to say if they can't come up with something on their own.

While Chiang hasn't made any indication that he intends to mass produce the RizzGPT monocle for public consumption, it was widely roasted by internet commenters. The presumed purpose of the monocle is to assist its wearer in appearing confident and charismatic to a potential romantic partner, but several felt that goal was undermined by the fact its wearer would be wearing a giant glass computer on their face.

Many were reminded of Cyrano, and at least one feared that were RizzGPT to become more widespread, its owners' romantic encounters may end the same way.