Can I make a news article from a random sentence?

In what I can only describe as sheer boredom, I have been obsessed with AI apps. The latest has been Meta AI, a Facebook Messenger conversation that will tell me information about places, people and concepts. 

One of the more interesting things Meta AI has is a feature called “imagine me,” where you can tell it “imagine me as…” and it will picture you as whatever you describe to it.

I got curious and tried to make up my own aesthetics, going online to a random word generator. I took the random word and added -core to it, and a new aesthetic was born.

After looking at dozens of new aesthetics, “surgerycore,” “policecore,” “lawcore,” and “receptioncore,” to name a few, I stumbled on a random sentence generator. 

I had to start generating. Once I did, I saw this sentence grace my screen: “Pink horses galloped across the sea.” 

“This would make an interesting news article,” I thought. So, I randomly generated a city (thankfully it had an ocean nearby,) and got to reporting.

It was quite fun to turn my mind off and write something a little ridiculous. I’m thinking about doing a friendly competition among journalists to see what stories we all come up with.

Without further ado, here is my news story from a random sentence.

(Disclaimer, this is NOT a real news story. The organizations are real but the facts, photo, names and figures are made up by me.)

100 pink horses spark chaos at Clearwater Beach

CLEARWATER — Pink horses galloped across the sea in an act of protest against animal cruelty in Clearwater Beach Friday afternoon.

Around 2 p.m. Aug. 30, over 100 horses, painted in various shades of pink, sprinted along the beach, surprising beachgoers and triggering response from law enforcement. Several of the horses’ riders carried large flags displaying statistics related to animal testing in the cosmetic industry.

The most common banner said, “Does seeing a pink horse shock you? Over 110 million creatures die annually due to animal testing. That should shock you more.”

The protest was initially expected to span for five miles, until the Clearwater Police Department intercepted the protest halfway. 

Police teamed up with Pinellas County Animal Services to set up a barricade in an attempt to stop and wrangle the horses. After police stopped the leader, most of the remaining horses turned around and traveled back to the protest’s starting point.

In a press conference, Clearwater Police Chief Sylvia Huddle described the scene as chaotic and unlike anything she had ever seen before.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for over 30 years, and we’ve dealt with our fair amount of protests that have gotten out of hand, but I can truly say this one was unique, a logistical nightmare to stop, and made a spectacle out of using your constitutional right to protest,” Huddle said.

Surprisingly, no humans were injured from the protest. A horse suffered a broken leg and was transported to a veterinary hospital; Testing at the hospital confirmed the horse was covered in tempera paint, posing no threat to the horse. 

“We’re very fortunate that this incident was not as harmful to the public or to the horses as it could have been,” Huddle said.

The protest leader, Carmen Johnson, 41, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and animal cruelty. Police are hopeful the event can serve as a reminder to responsibly stand up for what you believe in.

“We’re not against protests as long as they don’t disturb the peace,” Huddle said. “But the event Ms. Johnson organized was extremely unsafe and a distraction from the message she was trying to portray.”

Coincidentally, Johnson’s brother, Jon Minor, was at Clearwater Beach with family and witnessed the protest. At the conference, he said it was a shock to see his sister leading the charge, given the fact she never rode a horse before the protest.

“I’m not entirely sure what got into her. [Carmen] has always been outspoken against animal cruelty, but never did I think she would take it to this extreme,” Minor said.

Several protesters on scene claimed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was responsible. PETA said they were unaware of the protest.

“While we do whatever we can to take a stand against animal cruelty, we do not condone the actions taken at Clearwater Beach,” PETA President Jamel L. Calabrese said. “We will continue to fight for animal rights and we believe the methods these protesters used were egregious and harmful to the horses.”