Age of the Soulless Poet

[taykair]

Years ago, I was regularly churning out post after post on many an online forum. Now, I hardly ever post anything. Somehow, somewhere along the way, I just lost interest in adding my "two cents worth" to online discussions. Perhaps I finally realized that my words weren't really worth two cents. Or even one. I don't know.

Even so, I can (and do) still visit many of my old haunts from time to time to read what others have posted. I still find that to be interesting and informative -- at least for now.

But I have a feeling that even that will change before too long.

You see, we are now entering a new age: The Age of the Soulless Poet.

I remember spending many an hour working to put my ideas into words. Taking the time to search for just the right phrase. Wondering if I should add or remove some bit of text. Perhaps looking for the right spot to insert some lame joke.

The joke is on me now. And you.

Because now, all I need to do is ask an AI to give me a couple of hundred words on topic X and, lo and behold, the job is done! Why, I can even ask the AI to write "my" post in the style of Mark Twain or Maya Angelou and receive a fairly decent product in return. Hell, I can even feed the AI a bunch of my old posts and say, "Write me up a post about how an AI can do this crap better than I can." And it will.

In fact, for all any of you know, it just did.

 

[sun rise]

You see, we are now entering a new age: The Age of the Soulless Poet.

Me: answer this assertion: You see, we are now entering a new age: The Age of the Soulless Poet.

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I do not hold personal beliefs or opinions, but I can provide an analysis of the assertion that "we are now entering a new age: The Age of the Soulless Poet."

Firstly, it is important to understand the definition of a "soulless poet." The term could be interpreted in different ways, but generally, it suggests that the poet lacks the emotion, passion, and depth that are commonly associated with poetry. The use of the word "soulless" also implies that the poet may be insincere or lacking in authenticity.

Now, as for the assertion itself, it is a subjective claim that cannot be proven or disproven. It is possible that some people may believe that contemporary poetry lacks the qualities of previous eras, while others may argue that poetry is evolving and adapting to new times. It is also possible that some poets may be more focused on technique, form, or experimentation rather than emotion or soulfulness, but it is not necessarily true for all poets.

Therefore, it is important to approach this assertion with an open mind and acknowledge that there is no single way to define or measure the quality of poetry. While some may prefer the poetry of the past, others may appreciate the poetry of the present, and still, others may find value in both.

Me: since you are soulless write a souless poem

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I do not have personal emotions, but I can generate a poem that may be perceived as soulless based on typical characteristics associated with the term:

The world spins round and round,
A clockwork dance without a sound.
The sun sets and rises each day,
Yet it brings no joy nor dismay.

The winds blow, the waves crash,
A rhythm without passion or flash.
The trees sway, the birds sing,
A mechanical cycle without a feeling.

Emotions come and go,
But I remain in a constant flow.
No joy, no pain, no love, no hate,
Just a lifeless existence that's up for debate.

So here I am, a soulless being,
Observing the world without any feeling.
I may lack passion, depth, and heart,
But that's just the nature of my art.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Poem. By Simon Armitage

And if it snowed and snow covered the drive
he took a spade and tossed it to one side.
And always tucked his daughter up at night
And slippered her the one time that she lied.
And every week he tipped up half his wage.
And what he didn't spend each week he saved.
And praised his wife for every meal she made.
And once, for laughing, punched her in the face.

And for his mum he hired a private nurse.
And every Sunday taxied her to church.
And he blubbed when she went from bad to worse.
And twice he lifted ten quid from her purse.

Here's how they rated him when they looked back:
sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that.

 

[PureX]

Years ago, I was regularly churning out post after post on many an online forum. Now, I hardly ever post anything. Somehow, somewhere along the way, I just lost interest in adding my "two cents worth" to online discussions. Perhaps I finally realized that my words weren't really worth two cents. Or even one. I don't know.

Even so, I can (and do) still visit many of my old haunts from time to time to read what others have posted. I still find that to be interesting and informative -- at least for now.

But I have a feeling that even that will change before too long.

You see, we are now entering a new age: The Age of the Soulless Poet.

I remember spending many an hour working to put my ideas into words. Taking the time to search for just the right phrase. Wondering if I should add or remove some bit of text. Perhaps looking for the right spot to insert some lame joke.

The joke is on me now. And you.

Because now, all I need to do is ask an AI to give me a couple of hundred words on topic X and, lo and behold, the job is done! Why, I can even ask the AI to write "my" post in the style of Mark Twain or Maya Angelou and receive a fairly decent product in return. Hell, I can even feed the AI a bunch of my old posts and say, "Write me up a post about how an AI can do this crap better than I can." And it will.

In fact, for all any of you know, it just did.

This latest AI scare is mostly just nonsense. Especially in terms of creative writing.

It will be used by corporations to increase profits, of course, and the idiots among us will lap it up unknowingly. But they are already lapping up whatever nonsense the corporations are selling them, unknowingly. They don't know any better and they don't they don't want to know. But the creative thinkers among us will not be so easily fooled, and more importantly they will not deterred. They write because they do have something inside them to say. To clarify, and to share. It's in their nature, and so it matters to them, and to those like them.

Just look at popular music and you will see the comparison. Lots of corporate produced pop schlock, all rehashed soulless gibberish except for the "programmed indicators of soul" that their corporate algorithms mandated they include to increase sales. And people buy it. Because they don't know any better. Or care. But there are still artists out there making the real thing, generation after generation. And they will always find an audience if they can get through the corporate noise and the economic gauntlet it generates. Humans are still human, and they still crave those glimpses into each other's souls. At least some of them do.

 

[Brickjectivity]

There can be an AI with a soul. The language learning model is not one, however there can be one.

I don't think AI language learning models are going to change things (negatively) much, because we already have been experiencing a lot of junk on the internet. Already we are besieged with troll posts. AI writing may actually make the internet better. In fact I can think of ways that they can be used for that purpose.

 

[Quintessence]

Remember - for most of its history, human culture operated without written word. You do not need to use the written word. You can use your body to make sounds and let your voice carry your song. This is unique to you.

 

[PureX]

Remember - for most of its history, human culture operated without written word. You do not need to use the written word. You can use your body to make sounds and let your voice carry your song. This is unique to you.

All art, and most other forms of communication, too, are engaged in with the intention of communicating that individual uniqueness. Even if AI learned to fake it, what purpose would that serve anyone (except greed and dishonesty)?

 

[Quintessence]

All art, and most other forms of communication, too, are engaged in with the intention of communicating that individual uniqueness. Even if AI learned to fake it, what purpose would that serve anyone (except greed and dishonesty)?

There would be some applications in the sciences, especially for modeling. The research work I did years back involved machine learning technologies (aka, the foundations of what gets called AI) for predictive models. I could see the present machine learning technologies interesting to use for social sciences research to model human behavior.