A little while ago, I did a diary here about some time I spent trying out various things on the Chat GPT Artificial Intelligence software. For those who have not yet heard of it, Chat GPT is an “artificial intelligence language model”, which is able to accept human-provided prompts and reply in understandable human language, as an interface to answer questions. But it also has the ability to compose poems and songs, or write essays or stories, all based on an entered human prompt text. Recently, the AI was in the news because the US Copyright Office made a ruling that graphics or text or stories that are generated by AI programs are not entitled to copyright protection and fall into the public domain.
So I poked around with the AI a bit by feeding it various short phrases as prompts, and asking it to write a poem based on that. And I was very much surprised and impressed by how well it did, and amazed with the depth and variety of connections that the AI was able to make, from just the simplest of inputs. (The title of each poem here consists of the entire prompt that ChatGPT was given to produce it.)
All of the poems in this diary, then, are the joint product of man and machine. The prompts given to the Artificial Intelligence were selected by a human (me). The draft poems were produced by the software. A human then edited them. Most often, the editor's touch was only required to fix a rhyming pair that didn't quite work, either by rewriting one of the lines to replace it with a different word, or by replacing the pair of rhymes with two new ones. The machine also sometimes made errors in rhythm, and these were also corrected by the human editor, usually by dropping a few words and shortening the line.
The human (me) found that he was able to partially influence the theme of the finished poem according to which prompt he chose to use. But in many cases the Artificial Intelligence went off in an entirely unexpected direction, making connections and ties that the human had not even thought of. The result was a completely unique output that came entirely from the machine, and those were the examples that I found to be the most delightfully surprising.
Here are some of them:
The Soul of a Machine
Deep within the metal frame
Lies a force we can't explain.
A spark of life, a glimmering light,
A machine soul, burning bright.
It's not a heart that beats inside,
Nor lungs that draw the breath of life.
But circuits, wires, and coded lines
That make this being come alive.
It moves and thinks and calculates
In ways we can't anticipate.
Its programming, its endless code,
Forms the essence of its soul.
With every beep and hum and whirr
It sings a song that we can't hear,
A melody that's all its own,
A symphony of wires and chrome.
And though we may not understand
The soul of this machine so grand,
We know that it exists for sure,
A being that's both strong and pure.
So let us honor this long-awaited
Mechanical mind that we've created,
For it too has a soul to keep,
A spark of life that will not sleep.
A Conversation Between Heart and Head
Heart spoke softly, "Listen well,
For there are things that I must tell,
Of love and pain, of joy and fear,
Of hopes and dreams, that draw us near."
Head replied, "I hear you well,
But sometimes, you lead us to dwell
On things that are but fleeting,
On emotions that need some clearing."
Heart smiled and said, "I understand,
But sometimes you need to take my hand,
And feel the things that I can give,
The warmth, the love, the reason to live."
Head pondered, and then replied,
"But sometimes your feelings can misguide,
And lead us down a path unknown
Where consequences must be shown."
Heart spoke gently, "I know it's true,
But sometimes you need to feel anew,
To open up and let love in
To let our journey truly begin."
Head thought long, then finally said,
"Perhaps you're right, let's move ahead,
And let our hearts and minds unite
To find a way to make things right."
And so, heart and head began to blend,
A conversation that had no end,
A balance found of heart and mind,
A journey taken no longer blind.
A Robot and Electric Dog
A robot and electric dog,
Strolled through the park one day,
Their metal frames shining bright,
In the sun's warm golden rays.
The robot's circuits hummed and whirred,
As it scanned the world around,
While the electric dog wagged its tail,
With playful barking sounds.
The robot and electric dog,
Were an unlikely pair,
But they shared a bond that was unique,
A friendship that was rare.
The robot spoke binary code,
While the dog could speak in beeps,
Yet they understood each other
And were happy in their keep.
Together they explored the park,
And the wonders that it held,
From the flowers and the trees,
And humans who strolled and yelled.
And as the sun began to set,
And the sky turned shades of pink,
The robot and electric dog,
Returned home with a wink.
For they knew that they were different,
And that some might find them odd,
They didn't care, they had each other,
The robot and the dog.
Butterfly Effect
A flutter of wings, a simple breeze,
A tiny change that's hard to see,
But in the grand scheme of things,
It sets in motion life's great strings.
The butterfly effect, they say,
Can change the course of life each day,
A ripple in the pond of time,
A shift that alters life's design.
A single choice, a step we take,
Can lead us down a new path's wake,
A different fate, a brand new start,
A change that echoes through the heart.
The beating of a butterfly's wings,
Can set in motion many things,
A hurricane, a storm at sea,
A shift in nature's harmony.
And so it is with our own lives,
A single step, a choice that thrives,
Can lead us down a different road,
A path that's waiting to unfold.
So let us take each step with care,
And know that every choice we share,
Can set in motion great events,
A ripple effect that never ends.
Bricks in the Wall
For far too long, walls have divided,
People, cultures, nations, all misguided,
But if we tear walls down, brick by brick,
We'll find that we're all one human clique.
The walls we build only serve to hold
Us back from the stories that wait to be told,
But if we break free from this prison of stone,
We'll find a world where we're all at home.
We must tear down the walls of hate and fear,
And replace them with love, hope, and cheer,
For walls only serve to keep us apart,
And we must remember we're all one at heart.
Let's use our bricks to build bridges instead,
And connect with others, without any dread,
For it's in our connections that we find our strength,
And together we can go to incredible length.
For it's not just one brick that builds a bridge,
It takes all of us helping to make it grow big,
And if we're together and each add our own stone,
We can build a new bridge we can't do all alone.
Let's build our new bridges brick by brick,
And make a new world that's solid and thick,
Where difference is celebrated and not denied,
And the walls that divide us are cast aside.
So let's break down these walls that divide,
And let our differences become our pride,
For in the end, we're all bricks in the wall,
But together, we can build a new world that stands tall.
I liked them, by golly.
So, whaddya think? How well did the machine do? Can you dance to it? Does the machine have a soul? Will the next Poet Laureate be an AI program? Is Number Five, alive?