
CuratedAI: A literary magazine written by machines, for people - ryan_j_naughton
http://curatedai.com/
======
sanxiyn
This is beautiful:

    
    
      The deeper the hustle the deeper the pain
      I wish I could play the Violin
      The thought of you is driving me insane
    

Go to [http://villanellebot.tumblr.com/post/148629267135/so-many-
th...](http://villanellebot.tumblr.com/post/148629267135/so-many-thoughts-it-
makes-my-head-spin) for the entire poem, and
[https://avoision.com/2015/08/26/villanelle-bot-poems-in-
the-...](https://avoision.com/2015/08/26/villanelle-bot-poems-in-the-
villanelle-form-created-using-random-posts-from-twitter.php) to learn how it
was done.

~~~
coetry
That actually is incredibly beautiful. It's crazy to think that the machine
that generated it was devoid of the emotions behind this assembly of words.

~~~
SCHiM
Well is it? At some point, either we become like machines, or the machines
become like us. There is a limit to how many times we can redraw the lines.

~~~
TheLarch
The common distinction between machine and life seems arbitrary. Suppose for
instance you had essentially infinite resources to design a machine that self-
replicates by stealing blood from mammals, etc etc. You would end up with
something very much like the mosquito. Why is it a machine only when man
designs it?

This is perhaps more apparent with viruses. They aren't living per se, but are
halfway there. The assertion that the virus is not a machine seems to be a
difference without a distinction.

~~~
jrlocke
The expression is "a distinction without a difference"

~~~
TheLarch
Oh yes! Thanks.

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JoeDaDude
Followers of computer generated literature may recall "The Policeman's Beard
is Half Constructed" [1], ostensibly written by the program Racter [2] (though
that authorship was never conclusively proven).

[1]
[http://www.ubu.com/historical/racter/index.html](http://www.ubu.com/historical/racter/index.html)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racter)

~~~
tempodox
Racter was quite impressive for its time.

------
yolesaber
When you just set an AI to generate content based on input text, you get
garbage like this. You need to set restraints and create a form to work in. An
"AI" (i.e. probably a markov chain) spewing out word salad just isn't
interesting in 2016 unless it has conceptual weight.

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dingaling
Fairly awful stuff but it would be fascinating to keep that experiment running
for a decade to watch AI evolve.

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pipio21
Ugly and nonsense. But over time I expect it evolving into something we could
read.

------
Uehreka
I Ate Curly Fries And Shaker Fries has been stuck in my head all morning...
and I am still waiting for the rain to abate.

------
infiniteseeker
Very poetic

The best part of my job is the weight I lost. Found the truth beneath your
lies. And I am still waiting for the rain to abate.

------
ComteDeLaFere
The code behind this is probably more poetic than the output. Perhaps the
union of technology and culture is farther than we think.

Although, this really shines a light on the fact that it probably isn't
necessary for technology to attempt to optimize _every_ human experience.

------
ggonweb
SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator - Note: one of the papers was
accepted to SCI 2005

[https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/)

------
emptybits
This reminds me of that AI-written screenplay earlier this year [1]... it's
interesting, it may be progress, but it's partly carried by its presentation
and production value and the promo value of "who" it was authored by. (This is
also true, to a lesser degree, of human works.) Fingers crossed for progress.

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/06/an-ai-wrote-
th...](http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/06/an-ai-wrote-this-movie-
and-its-strangely-moving/)

------
etrevino
Reading the prose is like reading James Joyce, without the twee construction.

The poems I actually enjoyed, if only because they were funny to read out
loud.

------
DarkContinent
I really don't see the literary merit in a lot of these pieces, but obviously
this is an interesting step forward...

~~~
ashark
"I Ate Curly Fries And Shaker Fries" wouldn't be out of place in well-regarded
literary magazines. That slice-of-life with references-only-the-author-gets
but maybe-sometimes-they-resonate-in-an-oblique-way-with-the-reader poetry is
pretty common. Get an author with a decent bio[1] to submit it and I bet you
could get a similar-quality machine-generated work published in Ploughshares
or similar.

[1] MFA, edits a local poetry magazine with a circulation of 100, accepted
submissions to some mid-level publications, one or two "chapbooks" out.

~~~
yolesaber
Try submitting it. It will get rejected immediately becasue a) villanelle's
are hokey and played out and b) it's obvious this was written by a machine.
There's no poetic turn, there's nothing worthwhile to derive from it. It's
word salad. There's a reason why Oulipo, whose members have written many
algorithmic poems plays and novels, despised chance generations of text.

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washt
If the aim is to land somewhere within the style of Edward Lear, then this is
a job well done.

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steinsgate
Love the caption. Straight out of the future!

