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Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and return to his burrow this year, thereby predicting six more weeks of winter? Will anyone even watch the Groundhog Day tradition, with Super Bowl LIV dominating media airwaves from on Feb. 2?
It turns out the 133-year-old ritual is threatened by more than the popularity of America’s championship football game. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club a letter, asking the group to retire the ceremony’s use of a live groundhog in favor of artificial intelligence technology.
“An AI Phil would renew interest in Punxsutawney, generating a great deal of buzz, much like Sony’s robot dog ‘aibo,’ which walks, plays, misbehaves, and responds to commands,” the letter reads, according to CNN.
Of course, an AI-driven Punxsutawney Phil would exist only in cyberspace, where PETA argued younger generations may grow to care more about this seasonal tradition:
“Today’s young people are born into a world of terabytes, and to them, watching a nocturnal rodent being pulled from a fake hole isn’t even worthy of a text message,” the letter reads. “Ignoring the nation’s fast-changing demographics might well prove the end of Groundhog Day.”
No word from the NFL or PETA yet on plans to replace football players, who risk chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other life-changing injuries and traumas, with AI-driven gladiators competing for Super Bowl rings on the gridiron.
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