By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

MORE than we realize, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is woven in our daily life. It is present in all mobile phones, personal computers, in bank transactions and other places where human interaction is present, and where it has replaced the services of humans.

In our mobile phones, we have Alexa, a “smart” assistant for a wide range of devices and the ability to check the news, give a quick update on all topics you are interested in, or perform hundreds of other tasks, like play your favorite song. Some other applications, like Chat AI Assistant go even further, to write for you an essay, or compose a poem. Luz Maria Martinez sent me an AI-generated poem:

“I typed into Chat the words Stormy Weather and it generated this poem. It’s so creepy knowing that AI can produce such things in a few seconds.”

Luz María López commented that a poet wrote on FB that now anyone can write poetry and call themselves “poets” using AI.

“As this computer AI have been fed with poetry from all centuries and styles, and they are pretty good at generating poems. We might reach “generic” poetry momentum. My best friend (national poetry award), we were talking once and he put a few phrases like Caribbean woman and so on, in the AI Chat, just to see what came out, i was surprised at some real good metaphors and a poem that was very ok in a flash of time. You can edit it too, for is available to you. Same can go with stories and so, a few commands and something might go surprising. We are in for a lot now. While attending a conference on AI, the professor from university was explaining how it can actually generate even a thesis.”

But not everyone agrees that anyone assisted by an AI can be a poet. Some doubt the originality of the AI itself to generate original content. Others propose regulation.

Marian Eikelhof: I kind of don’t like this poem generated by Al. It misses the twists of the mind of a human being, unexpected views, changing perspectives and it doesn’t raise our consciousness of the societal injustices going on. I don’t know about the emotional life of these readers, but I need something more to be touched like one of your poems.

Paramita Mukherjee Mullick: Scary but let us not be scared because the human touch, the human heart and human love can never be replaced.

Connie Lopez-Madarang: How do you know it’s original and not taken from its huge storage of data? I read that it can also make a story or book in minutes. Or a report. If you are a teacher, can you check if the submission is AI-generated? This will be another disadvantage between the rich and the poor students.

Chaitali Sengupta: Another step towards the wrong direction. Authorities, civic society must stop this menace.

The implications are mind-boggling, not only to writers and poets, but to society as a whole. Yuval Noah Harari argues that when AI pushes many out of work, giving rise to a “useless class”, we must forge new economic, social, educational systems. The theory of the useless class is juxtaposed with a new configuration of a “working class”, which will be entrusted with operating the AI machinery.

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