People in the community have been having fun asking it to explain various things, and among them, Sarah Cecchetti, Head of Cognito at AWS, had it produce an amusing passage.
A. Maze. Ing. This one is for @vibronet pic.twitter.com/MQ0vjFqbdk
Write a biblical parable in the style of the King James Bible explaining why one should only use access tokens and never ID tokens for access management
(Source) @Sarah_Cecc
In other words:
Explain in the style of the King James Bible why access tokens alone should be used for access management and ID tokens should never be used.
The result is extremely amusing. Its explanation of ID tokens is wrong, but it really does sound like the King James Bible. Here is the DeepL translation.
And it came to pass that a wise king, in the land of Webdom, sought to protect his kingdom from those who would seek to do harm. And he commanded his servants to implement a system of access management, that only those with rightful access may enter the kingdom’s gates.
But there were 2 types of tokens that the king’s servants could use: access tokens and ID tokens. And the servants, being unversed in security, knew not which to use.
So the king summoned his chief counselor and asked him to explain the difference between the 2 tokens.
“Access tokens are temporary and are used to access specific resources within the kingdom. ID tokens, on the other hand, are permanent and contain sensitive information about the bearer. If an ID token fell into the hands of an evildoer, it might grant access to the entire kingdom.”
The king was greatly troubled by this and commanded his servants to use access tokens alone for access management, lest they imperil the security of the kingdom.
“For it is better to grant limited access to a few than to endanger the kingdom by granting unrestricted access to all,” declared the king.
The servants of the kingdom heeded their king’s words, and the kingdom remained safe.
(Source) ChatGPT-generated response from @Sarah_Cecc 1
Incidentally, when I submitted the same question, it returned a different version. Because it is AI, the results are not consistent. What is consistent, though, is that this “wise king” makes the same mistake here too.
A wise king decreed that all who sought to enter his kingdom must first obtain an access token. For the kingdom was a place of great treasure and wisdom, and the king wished to protect it from those who would do it harm.
But some did not heed the king’s command and tried to enter the kingdom by means other than an admission token. These were foolish people who thought themselves wise and tried to use ID tokens instead.
But the king was wise and had foreseen this. He therefore stationed guards at the gates of the kingdom, allowing entry only to those with the proper access token. The foolish people who thought themselves wise were turned away at the gates, and their ID tokens were of no use to them.
The wise learned from the king’s command and sought only to obtain an access token to enter the kingdom. For the access token alone was the true means of entry into the kingdom, and every other means was in vain.
The king was pleased, for his kingdom was safe and secure, and only those who were worthy could enter. All who sought to enter the kingdom by any other means were left outside, unable to access the treasure and wisdom within.
Therefore, let all who would enter the wise king’s kingdom heed this parable and obtain the token of entry. And let all who would enter by any other means be warned, for they shall be turned away at the gates, and their ID tokens shall be of no use.
(Source) Generated by ChatGPT2
Perhaps I should write a sequel to this story.
Once, a man stood before the gates of the kingdom. He was from an enemy country, but the gatekeeper did not know it. The man possessed a valid access token that he had obtained somewhere. Upon verifying it, the gatekeeper admitted him into the kingdom. Thus all the kingdom’s treasure and wisdom passed into the hands of the enemy country, and before long the kingdom fell.
(Source) The author
There are many possible scenarios for how that might happen. Please write yours in the comments or reply on twitter!
ChatGPTに欽定訳聖書のスタイルでIDトークンとアクセストークンを説明させてみた https://t.co/rejJ7uj2V7 @_natより
Footnotes
- And it came to pass that a wise king, in the land of Webdom, sought to protect his kingdom from those who would seek to do harm. And he commanded his servants to implement a system of access management, that only those with rightful access may enter the kingdom’s gates.
But there were two types of tokens that the king’s servants could use – access tokens and ID tokens. And the servants were unsure which to use, for they were not well versed in the ways of security.
And so the king summoned his chief counselor, and asked him to explain the difference between the two tokens.
“Mighty king,” the counselor said, “access tokens are temporary and can be used to grant access to specific resources within the kingdom. ID tokens, on the other hand, are permanent and contain sensitive information about the bearer. If an ID token were to fall into the wrong hands, it could be used to gain access to the entire kingdom without permission.”
The king was greatly concerned by this, and commanded his servants to only use access tokens for access management, lest they jeopardize the security of the kingdom.
“For it is better to grant limited access to a few, than to risk the safety of the kingdom by granting unrestricted access to all,” the king declared.
And the servants of the kingdom heeded the wise words of their king, and the kingdom remained safe and secure. - And it came to pass that a wise king did decree that all those who sought to enter into his kingdom must first obtain a token of access. For the kingdom was a place of great treasure and wisdom, and the king wished to keep it safe from those who would seek to do it harm.
But there were some who did not heed the king’s decree, and instead sought to gain access to the kingdom through means other than the token of access. These were the foolish ones, who thought themselves wise, and sought to use ID tokens instead.
But the king was wise, and he had foreseen this. And so he had placed guards at the gates of the kingdom, who would only allow those with the proper token of access to enter. And the foolish ones, who thought themselves wise, were turned away at the gates, and their ID tokens were of no use to them.
And so it was that the wise learned the lesson of the king’s decree, and sought only to obtain the token of access in order to gain entry into the kingdom. For the token of access was the only true way to gain entry into the kingdom, and all other means were in vain.
And the king was pleased, for his kingdom was safe and secure, and only those who were worthy could enter. And all who sought to enter the kingdom by any other means were left outside, unable to gain access to the treasure and wisdom that lay within.
Therefore, let all who would seek to enter the kingdom of the wise king take heed of this parable, and obtain the token of access, for it is the only true way to gain entry into the kingdom. And let all who would seek to enter by any other means be warned, for they will be turned away at the gates, and their ID tokens will be of no use to them.
Related posts
【Announcement】Is That QR Code Safe? Threats and Countermeasures in Cross-Device Authentication and Authorization Flows【YouTube Live】
On August 22 (Thursday), starting at 20 hours, we will host a YouTube Live stream titled “Is That QR Code Safe? Threats and Countermeasures in Cross-Device…
Authlete Features for OAuth/OIDC Profiling: A Summary
As many of you may know, I serve as an outside director of Authlete Despite that, I had not kept up with the latest developments, so…
OpenID Summit Tokyo 2026 “Special Edition” Closing Keynote
The tickets apparently sold out instantly, so I had not introduced this event here; however, tomorrow, August 26, I will appear at the OpenID Summit Tokyo…