Chinese poetry scholars are 'disgusted' by a new book written by a robot
Shutterstock
"It disgusted me with its slippery tone and rhythm," poet Yu Jian told local newspaper China Youth Daily, according to the South China Morning Post. "The sentences were aimless and superficial, lacking the inner logic for emotional expression."
Others said computers couldn't create poetry because they weren't alive, and that the work could "kill our beloved art."
The book's contentious author is Xiaoice, a natural-language chat bot developed by Microsoft in 2014. It debuted to great fanfare on the Chinese blogging site Weibo and has since interacted with tens of millions of users both online and in the app.
Xiaoice's breakout book was met with mixed reviews, however. Some praised the technology's innovative leap from conversation to creative efforts, including one professor who embraced the new take on the art form.
"This is what we call a poetic jump," Zhang Zonggang, of Nanjing University, told the SCMP.
But there were also purists who wholeheartedly rejected the premise that poetry could come from AI.
"A computer that has not lived life cannot write a poem," Shanghai-based poet Ding Shaoguo told the SCMP.
Here is one of Xiaoice's poems, if you want to judge for yourself:
The rain is blowing through the sea/ A bird in the sky/ A night of light and calm/ Sunlight/ Now in the sky/ Cool heart/ The savage north wind/ When I found a new world.
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- A centenarian who starts her day with gentle exercise and loves walks shares 5 longevity tips, including staying single
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- "To sit and talk in the box...!" Kohli's message to critics as RCB wrecks GT in IPL Match 45
- 7 Nutritious and flavourful tiffin ideas to pack for school
- India's e-commerce market set to skyrocket as the country's digital economy surges to USD 1 Trillion by 2030
- Top 5 places to visit near Rishikesh
- Indian economy remains in bright spot: Ministry of Finance