A mirror on ourselves

Computer programs are writing novels just like humans. What does that say about us?

Robots and computer programes are now writing books and that says something about humans. Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP Photo
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A Japanese artificial intelligence (AI) program has co-authored its first novel. The book is called The Day a Computer Writes a Novel and has received positive reviews in Japan. The book has even passed the first round of screening for Japan's national literary prize. In related news, Microsoft was forced to suspend its robotic Twitter account Tay last week after reports that the "bot" was sending racist and insulting tweets on a shockingly regular basis.

In both cases, these programs are holding a mirror up to their creators. Twitter has long been a place for unfiltered ranting that more often than not devolves into shouting matches between users. As for literature, that is more of a subjective conversation. Perhaps literature standards are dying in the age of immediate social media and reading on flashing screens of all sizes. Our capacity for the literary has dwindled to such a degree that robots can write books for us. A scary prospect.