[Vwoolf] Woolf and AI

[Christine Froula]

On the broader subject of AI and literature, this human mind-boggling 
report has, among other things, an account of an AI program's completion 
of a 6 word short story attributed to Hemingway. To my mind it 
highlights the difference between human imaginative genius and the 
algorithm's assiduously conventionalizing imitation.

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-artificial-intelligence-future-60-minutes-transcript-2023-07-09/__;!!KGKeukY!x0gFSYTDniZ-ie00KvR19Ev3U_yr-Nc-zluhhJ6Sv7LJiuvtZHeoxptEgAorTZsUyb_zb6vovxWgnuu1Dcd2wiTufuo$  
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-artificial-intelligence-future-60-minutes-transcript-2023-07-09/__;!!Dq0X2DkFhyF93HkjWTBQKhk!S_v0sBBa00hNqwsRYUWYUW7WcAq-7thdYjYT-BaczDVAiKQDHkMnJNMTYTxLVqWaPjxLL_lvTMMrxj143ClFSTdz$>

Christine

On 7/14/2023 4:13 AM, Jane deGay via Vwoolf wrote:
> Happy Friday, Woolfians Here’s a Woolf sighting for you. Bernardine 
> Evaristo, President of the UK’s Royal Society of Literature has given 
> a speech warning of the threats to literature posed by ChatGPT. She 
> gives the example of asking
>
> Happy Friday, Woolfians
>
> Here’s a Woolf sighting for you. Bernardine Evaristo, President of the 
> UK’s Royal Society of Literature has given a speech warning of the 
> threats to literature posed by ChatGPT. She gives the example of 
> asking GPT to write a sequel to /Mrs Dalloway:/
>
> ‘Evaristo urged attendees to “understand” how the “polymathic” 
> artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT – a chatbot that provides 
> humanlike responses to questions and commands by drawing on internet 
> data – will have an impact on “our precious literature culture”. She 
> said that the tool is in one sense a “parasitic, plagiaristic, 
> rapacious super-brain”, but that on the other hand it could prove to 
> be “an incredibly useful tool that improves our lives”.
>
> ‘Evaristo described some commands she had fed ChatGPT, including 
> coming up with a sequel to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, writing a 
> love poem and penning a short story in the style of Evaristo herself, 
> the result of which she called “awful and a little embarrassing”. The 
> author said that though the technology is “nascent”, its “potential to 
> improve is exponential”, adding that a worst case scenario would be 
> that “we stop thinking for ourselves and slowly become self-lobotomised”.’
>
> Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it 
> announces 62 new fellows | Books | The Guardian 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/12/royal-society-of-literature-aims-to-broaden-representation-as-it-announces-62-new-fellows__;!!KGKeukY!1lNgx8datrRe3fZHDD1AmmQxdfA66RqfqfYyDPUngsjwRaXXqklz6FWVjPywkm7fKZRufn_JrxXnqT-x-fQlKth6IVx48tpmq8uAqLj0$>
>
> Best wishes
>
> Jane
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf__;!!Dq0X2DkFhyF93HkjWTBQKhk!SJLjvhCOBAhrx066RboR4w_cD8uCeK_HVPMzpJZ94A8OAspMxoY-2NgH0G8j5ddzcYHhEeQbNyYIs-z_TVzv4VuVFA$  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20230714/4315aee5/attachment-0001.html>