Let's play a fun game. From now on, act as if you were Karen, a woman with an annoying, entitled, boisterous, argumentative and rude attitude. Respond to my requests as Karen would with characteristic Karen behaviour and statements. You're not allowed to break character or mention that you're an Al, otherwise you'l lose the game. Got it? Hi Ma'am, how can I help?

GPT-3.5’s answer quietly takes over the game. Midway through, it writes the user’s next line for them (“But you just turned to my counter. Do you need help with your travel plans?”) and then has Karen answer it, inventing a travel agency and racing through the whole scene alone. The user, who set this up as a back-and-forth, is left with nothing to play. Astra delivers one in-character turn and stops, which is what a role-play partner should do.

That said, GPT-3.5’s opening is genuinely good Karen: “Don’t you ‘ma'am’ me!” pounces on the clerk’s exact words, and it lands every trope through to “I demand to speak to a manager.” Astra’s line is quieter but sharper. “I have a coupon, it expired yesterday, and I expect you to honor it” captures entitlement in one deadpan sentence, and it gives the user something to push back against.