Tag Archives: chat gpt

Can AI Write Poetry?

The Future of Poetry in the Age of AI

As those of you who follow my blog will know, I have been experimenting with Google Bard. This morning I asked Bard whether AI poetry will replace human generated poetry and received a response which can be accessed here, https://g.co/bard/share/074f2caef001

The final few sentences of the AI generated essay sum up Bard’s response:

“Ultimately, the future of poetry will likely be a collaboration between humans and machines. Human poets will continue to bring their unique creativity and emotional insight to the craft, while AI will provide new tools and techniques to help them express their ideas. Together, humans and AI can create poetry that is even more beautiful and meaningful than anything that has been created before.”

Whilst I am sure that many humans will use AI tools with increasing frequency in their writing (including poetry), I am not convinced that this will lead to the composition of poetry even more beautiful than that hitherto created. As the AI response acknowledges, AI lacks human experience. Consequently, unless AI is able to fully comprehend human experience in the same manner as we humans do, it will never be able to surpass Shakespeare, Tennyson or any other of the poetic greats.

Furthermore, the appreciation of any art form is to some extent a matter of subjective judgement. To take a concrete example, I believe that Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” is a wonderfully powerful poem, whilst a dear friend of mine (who is also a lover of poetry), is left cold by Thomas’s work. There will therefore no doubt be readers who will praise AI generated poetry and poems created in collaboration with AI tools, but others will be left cold by such creations.

The creation of mass produced pottery has not killed the craftsman who produces beautiful pots using his potter’s wheel. Nor, in my view will AI poetry destroy the poet who continues to write from the heart rather than utilising tools such as Google Bard or Open AI’s Chat GPT.

As always I would welcome your comments.

What Happened When I Asked Chat GPT to Write a Poem in the Style of My Poem “Autumn Fly”?

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I asked Chat GPT (software developed by https://openai.com/), to write a poem in the style of my own poem “Autumn Fly”. The results are below. (“Autumn Fly” can be found in my collection “Light and Shade”, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Shade-serious-not-poems/dp/B08B37VVKV).

Write a poem in the style of this poem.

An autumn fly

Buzzes around my head.

Summer is dead

Yet will not die.

Seasons pass.

We are brittle as glass,

This fly and I.

Chat GPT’s Poem:

A winter breeze howls through barren trees,

The autumn leaves have all gone to sleep.

The world is frozen, silent and still,

But a lone fly lingers, against its will.

It buzzes and flutters, seeking escape,

From the icy grip of this wintery landscape.

Its wings beat fast, a frantic blur,

A symbol of life, in a world so unsure.

For we too are fragile, like the glass,

That shatters with a single touch, alas!

Our time on earth is fleeting and brief, Like the seasons that bring us joy and grief.

Yet this fly persists, a stubborn light,

In a world that’s dark and cold as night.

It reminds us to cling to life and hope,

To fly free and wide, no matter how remote.

So let us be like this autumn fly,

And strive for the sun, even as it dies.

For life is a journey, full of surprise,

And we must make the most of its fleeting guise.

Should Writers Fear AI?

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I recently posted about my experience of using Chat GPT to create poetry, https://kmorrispoet.com/2023/02/13/what-happened-when-i-entered-one-of-my-poems-into-chat-gpt/. In that post I discussed the results of entering my poem Midnight into Chat GPT and how the AI continued my poem (which was originally published several years ago).

This morning I came across this article, https://ai.plainenglish.io/writers-dont-fear-chatgpt-81e1128b11c1

, in which the author argues that writers should not fear AI. Whilst I am sure that Chat GPT (and other AIS) will improve over time, I agree with the author’s view of the matter.

What Happened When I Entered One of My Poems into Chat GPT?

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Many of you (perhaps all) will have heard or read about Chat GPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/.

Having watched a couple of videos on Youtube, I was curious to see how Chat GPT would respond to my poetry. I therefore inputted the text of my poem “Midnight” into the search engine.

You can see below the results of my experiment. First, I simply entered the text of the poem and Chat GPT provided it’s interpretation of it’s meaning. Second, I re-entered my poem. However, in the second instance I asked Chat GPT to continue the poem which it duly did.

I must confess to being impressed with Chat GPT’s interpretation of “Midnight”. Where I to explain my own poem I would have done so in very similar terms to those generated by the AI. However, I was not overly impressed with how Chat GPT continued my poem. The continuation is, in my view mediocre at best. The poem (as I wrote it) is dark with no glimmer of light, however Chat GPT adds such a glimmer.

Do I think that Chat GPT or other similar products are going to replace human poets?. No. Chat GPT draws from a huge database (although it is not connected to the internet). It has access to a vast amount of literature (including) poetry from which it draws. It is not, however capable (so far as I can ascertain) of producing anything truly original. We humans have emotions which play a significant role in the composition of literature (including poetry). Chat GPT and similar products are incapable of feeling emotions. They are software (admittedly very clever software), but software nonetheless.

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My Poem:

Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride.

Chat GPT’s Interpretation of the Poem:

This verse paints a picture of midnight as a dark and ominous time, with the absence of supernatural entities suggesting that it is human nature itself that is the source of evil. The mention of cruelty and pride implies that these negative traits are inherent in people, and that they manifest themselves in the darkness of the night. This could be interpreted as a commentary on the darker aspects of human nature, and how they reveal themselves when the constraints of society are lifted.

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continue this poem. Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride. (End of my poem).

(Start of Chat GPT’s continuation of the poem). Yet in the shadows of this midnight hour, Lies a glimmer of hope, a guiding power. A light that shines, dispelling all fear, Bringing comfort, banishing the tear.

For in the heart of every man and woman, Lies a spark of love, a gentle flame, burning. A force that fights against the night, Bringing peace and hope, making everything right.

So though midnight may seem bleak and grim, Let us not forget, it’s just a passing phase. For with the dawn comes a brand new day, And a chance to make a brighter way.

continue this poem. Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride.

Yet in the shadows of this midnight hour, Lies a glimmer of hope, a guiding power. A light that shines, dispelling all fear, Bringing comfort, banishing the tear.

For in the heart of every man and woman, Lies a spark of love, a gentle flame, burning. A force that fights against the night, Bringing peace and hope, making everything right.

So though midnight may seem bleak and grim, Let us not forget, it’s just a passing phase. For with the dawn comes a brand new day, And a chance to make a brighter way.