Can ChatGPT prune a bonsai? Our backyard plant:
Initial advice:
Yes, a light pruning would help. The narrow-leaved tree looks like a podocarpus, and its tall shoot on the left has grown well beyond the rest of the canopy.
I’d start by cutting that tall shoot back to a leafy side branch around the height of the middle foliage. Then shorten a few other long tips to bring the outline together, and remove the clearly dead twigs near the trunk. Keep some green foliage beyond each cut; avoid cutting the live branches back to bare wood. Podocarpus can be pruned during active growth.
The broad-leaved shoots at the base look like a different plant. Trace them to the soil before pulling them: if they have separate stems, remove them so they don’t compete with the bonsai. I’d do those few cuts first and reassess its shape before pruning more.
I removed the weed (“undocumented enriching immigrant plant”) and asked ChatGPT to annotate an updated photo:
The pruned-by-an-11-year-old version:
ChatGPT:
That cut looks clean, and the tree’s height is much closer to the rest of its canopy. I’d stop pruning live branches for now and let it grow. The two thin shoots still reaching up on the left can be shortened later if you want a tighter outline. For now, I’d only remove twigs you’ve confirmed are dead.
Might we be about to enter a golden age of Japanese gardens and bonsai? The problem with these disciplines is that they require intelligence that Americans lack (average IQ in Japan is substantially higher than in the U.S.), diligence and attention to detail that Americans lack, and labor that Americans can’t afford. What if AI supplies the intelligence and Optimus supplies the labor? Why not have a yard that looks like Kenroku-en, Koraku-en, or Kairaku-en? Why wouldn’t a Floridian have a tropical bonsai collection that competes with the one at Heathcote in Fort Pierce? (Not exclusively Japanese, but why not also have an orchid garden comparable to the one in Naples? Need to mist them every day? Not a problem for Optimus. (the Japanese are great at everything, of course, and have a rich orchid tradition as well))
I keep saying this, but it’s critical to also specify which model did you use at what effort level.
You can get vastly divergent results depending on the settings. In most cases nowadays, when people complain “AI didn’t work” is that they used weak model.
In this case AI didn’t work, but which AI was that?
I just use the defaults. I guess the above was probably GPT 5.6 Sol?
What makes you say “AI didn’t work” in the bonsai case? I thought it worked well!
Typo, indeed it worked. Sol is amazing. I use “computer use” skill and let it drive programs – taxes, 3d printing, simulator setup. No input from me, and job is done, amazing!
Gardening used to be one of the most popular occupations for Japanese Americans in Los Angeles. Today, they’ve largely moved on. Maybe AI could bring that culture back. What other vanished cultures could AI revive?
When Phil visits the Ann Arbor stronghold of the Islamic Republic of Michigan for say compulsory Ramadan services, he could stop by here:
https://mbgna.umich.edu/bonsai-trees
Cute little forests of bonsai. Really nice collection. (AI is a weed, whose plug needs to be pulled. Such a disgusting monocultured, artificial disembodied “intelligence” and product of pure human hubris and greed. Worse than human immigrants.)
@OAG, I’m just thinking how pointless it would be for me to tell Phil that had he read Suzuki, he would know that knowledge is attachment we need to lose, according to Zen teachings. Closer to Nirvana in ignorance — US schools have Zen down pat in 2026. Anyway, I wonder what the popular sentiment in Japan is towards AI. Their culture seems to be more inclusive of mechanical things in their animism spectrum, that is those things we feel have soul or awareness. Maybe if the AIs were a little more cute, like Japanes cars and robots, we would all feel a little more comfortable in their unstoppable take-over of the eminent domain?
Not obvious that anything of any value was accomplished at all by that photographing & typing. As one who has owned personal assistant robots for 20 years, they better pivot back to rooftop solar panels before they actually have to sell a humanoid robot to a consumer.
They are not going to sell robots to general population. If you have robots that can replace all workers at all your factories, would you sell this robot to anyone or exclusively use it yourself first?
@SK, I would start an entirely new business focused exclusively on selling and servicing robots. The real money is in making and selling “shovels”, not digging for gold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_rush#Profits