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Move Over, Keats? Here Is AI-Generated Poetry

Photo: John Keats, by William Hilton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I’ve had my latest exchange with GPT-3, this time here. (Also see my earlier post, “Dialogue with ChatGPT on Intelligent Design.”) I asked:

Would you please write me song lyrics in four stanzas about two lovers who get lost on the way up climbing Mount Everest and then get miraculously reunited? Thanks. 

I received this in reply:

Verse 1
Two lovers, on a journey up the mountain side
Heading towards the summit, side by side
Each step a challenge, each breath a prayer
A love so strong, that nothing can compare

Chorus
Climbing up the mountain, hand in hand
The journey long and hard, but the love so grand
The summit the goal, but fate had other plans
Two lovers lost on their way up Mount Everest

Verse 2
Winds howling, the blizzard so strong
The path ahead obscured, the way so long
The snow so deep, and the air so cold
Direction lost, the two slowly unfold

Chorus
Climbing up the mountain, hand in hand
The journey long and hard, but the love so grand
The summit the goal, but fate had other plans
Two lovers lost on their way up Mount Everest

Verse 3
Two hearts beating, hope starts to fade
The darkness closing in, the two afraid
A glimmer of light, a miracle appears
Uplifting spirits, the two wiped away their tears

Chorus
Climbing up the mountain, hand in hand The journey long and hard, but

It broke off there, before the 250-word limit. There are settings for word counts.

This poetry is bad to the point of hilarity, much as some movies are so bad that they’re “good.” I know it’s possible to make fun of these AI content-generating systems. But they’re in the early stages, so it will be interesting to see where they break down consistently and where they show continued improvement. My suspicion is that they will never write good original poetry.