Recently, the renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog participated in a project to read a book of artificial intelligence-generated poetry. His performance of the AI-poetry book, entitled “I Sing the Body Electronic,” was part of the Poetry in Motion event, organized by the Poetry Society of America.
The AI-poetry read by Herzog is the latest experiment highlighting the power of artificial intelligence tools and algorithms to generate creative works. For the Poetry in Motion event, a team of researchers used a type of AI called a deep learning algorithm to generate poems from classic science fiction texts such as “Frankenstein” and “The War of the Worlds.”
One might expect AI-generated poetry to read as robotic or emotionless, but the AI-poems read by Herzog had a surprisingly deep and meaningful tone. In particular, the AI-poems meditated on the themes of technology, alienation, and mortality. The words strung together in the AI-poems had a particular rhythm and style that gave the poems an eerie, human feeling.
The Poetry Society of America’s Poetry in Motion event was designed to draw attention to the potential of AI to create meaningful works of art. As humans and technology become more intertwined, AI-generated artworks such as those read by Herzog could become commonplace. It’s encouraging to see such renowned artists working with this new medium, as it shows the potential of AI tools to generate work of lasting value.
If you’d like to experience the AI-poetry of Werner Herzog for yourself, you can find recordings of his readings on the Poetry Society of America’s website. In the meantime, take a minute to sit back and appreciate the power of artificial intelligence to create works of art that can express complex ideas from new perspectives.
