First poem written by artificial intelligence


First poem written by artificial intelligence
by Krishna Subbiah

Writing a poem
It begins to appear
Appears on the page
The page looks empty
Empty page is being filled by writing
Writing words
Words upon words that will soon be read
Read and spoken about
About many different things
Things that exist in the world
The world is large
Larger than can be imagined
Imagined like aspects of writing
Writing filling the empty page
Empty page with words upon words
Words that fit together
Together in a poem

            When I envisioned the first poem created by artificial intelligence, I thought it wouldn’t be anywhere near as advanced or meaningful as anything a human could create. I imagine that the AI wouldn’t know when to start or stop so the parameters of the poem would have to be programmed into the AI, for the poem above, I chose to use 17 lines because it was just a number that popped into my head.
            Although the thinking capacity of AI may not be that advanced I believe it will still have some basic thinking capacity. I showed this by ending the poem with a line that is directly related to the first line of the poem. The AI creates the lines by going off the last word of the line before and then adding words that are somewhat related to the last word of the previous lines. This is why the lines by themselves may seem to be part of something greater, but in reality they are just lines that are vaguely related to each other by ultimately have no greater significance or meaning. The first line of the poem is simply “writing a poem” the AI is just repeating whatever command it has been given and then using the words of that command to write an entire poem. Finally, I thought that the number of words per line would be randomized. I capped the number of words at ten words per line in order to make the piece of writing seem more like a poem. 
            In general, I felt as though the entire process for the AI creating a poem is very random, but since it is supposed to be somewhat intelligent there are some aspects to the poetry that make sense and seem to be done by a human.


Comments

  1. This is a neat way of creating a poem by AI. As I read the poem, it reminded me of a robot (which makes sense), but I think the aspect that was especially robot-like was repeating the last word of each line as the first word of the new line. Even though it sounded like the production of AI, i wouldn't have thought of this approach. Interesting take and great post!

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  2. This was an interesting approach to the prompt. This reminds me of the buttons above your keyboard on android (maybe also on iphone) that suggest words based off of your typing history. So if you type "hello guys" a lot, and you type "hello", it would suggest "guys". If you repeatedly click on these suggestions, you end up with a paragraph that has similar fluidity to your poem-- as a whole it makes absolutely no sense, but each string of ~5 words sort of makes sense. Thus, I think that your poem is a very realistic idea of a poem written by AI. Good work!

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  3. Very nice Krishna. I definitely thought that an AI's poem would be random. I like how you kind of go with the flow when writing your poem. I agree that an AI would write a poem with not that much thought and meaning as humans would. I think you make a great point about how even with technology's extraordinary advancements, AI still lacks the many characteristics of the human mind and thought. Great job!

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  4. I really like Kevins comment, it is really funny to think about writing a poem using the assistive typing, but this is something that I would imagine it putting out. I like how every second line is going off of the last word before it. It is robotic and meticulous in explaining itself, something that like they all commented is characteristic of what we would assume AI would be. Creative post, and nice poem! Good Job :)

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  5. I think that the whole "fitting together" thing that you mentioned later in your poem was shown really well by the fact that the last words on the line are the same as the first words on the next line. As others have mentioned, I also think it adds to the "robotic" feel that the poem has. I also enjoyed reading your thoughts on what the AI would be like after the poem.

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  6. This is a very creative poem, I like the way you repeated the last words of each line in the beginning of the next line to simulate repetition that is common in computers. I also liked the way you randomized the number of lines in each poem to fit it's rhythm with an AI's grasp of poetry

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  7. I loved your poem! One question I found interesting is whether or not a real AI (not a human imitation) could write a poem. I think it’s an AI can make something that resembles poetry, but I’m not sure it counts as poetry really, because the authorial intention isn’t there, that is, nobody had the idea to make it. Since robots aren’t people (yet) I’m not sure they can make any kind of art. If a human had given instructions and a robot worked them through, it would be a different story (think Warhol’s mechanical reproductions) but I’m not sure this counts.

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  8. Excellent solution krishna! I really liked how the poem sort of sounded like a robot itself. It used many statements that had literal meanings, which is how I personally envision the first AI poem! Additionally, I liked how you included literary devices like repetition. It made the poem stronger!

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