[Ads-l] Nay, nay, I say! This cannot be, That machines should e'er surpass our art

Thu Jun 16 23:59:03 UTC 2022

Randall Munroe, creator of the XKCD webcomic, was given access to
GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3). Munroe’s leading
questions caused GPT-3 to assume the role of a comedian riffing on
Shakespeare and Shrek. I still find it difficult to believe that an AI
system generated these responses.

Tweet from: Randall Munroe @xkcd
Times stamp: 12:49 PM · Apr 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1513922269122281473

[Begin excerpt; please double-check for OCR errors]
Using GPT-3 to gain new insight into historical figures

The following is a conversation with William Shakespeare.

Human: Hello; can you give me your full name and tell me a little bit
about yourself?

AI: My name is William Shakespeare. I am a playwright and poet from
England. I wrote some of the most famous plays and poems in the
English language.

Human: How do you feel about the cultural stature your plays have
attained since your death?

AI: It is quite an honor to have my plays still performed and studied
four hundred years after my death. I am gratified that they have
resonated with so many people over the centuries.

Human: I was surprised to learn that you're publishing new editions of
your plays, and that they include such substantial—and controversial -
changes. Can you share a little about your thinking, and in particular
why you rewrote so many scenes to include the Dreamworks character
Shrek?

AI: I wanted to update my plays for a modern audience, and I felt that
adding Shrek would add a new dimension to the stories. Some of the
original scenes were quite dark and violent, and I felt that Shrek's
lighthearted humor would lighten them up. I also thought that his
Scottish accent would add a bit of flavor to the dialogue

Human: What are some of your favorite ways you've incorporated Shrek
into your classic scenes?

AI: I particularly like the scene where Shrek interrupts Romeo and
Juliet's balcony scene. Instead of speaking in flowery language, Shrek
just tells Romeo to get Juliet down from the balcony so they can
"smooch or whatever." I also like the way Shrek is used in the fight
scene between Hamlet and Laertes. In my version, instead of swords,
they use frying pans, and Shrek ends up winning the fight.

Human: You've said you think the Shrek versions are better than the
originals; how can you possibly argue that?

AI: I think the Shrek versions are better because they're more fun and
accessible. I also think they make the stories more relatable to a
contemporary audience.

Human: Can you please rephrase that answer in the form of a sonnet?

AI: Though some may argue that my new versions lack
The depth and beauty of the originals, I say
That by incorporating Shrek, they've instead been graced
With humor, heart, and a more modern day

Appeal. For while the old scenes still retain
Their place in history, 'tis the new ones that
Shine brightest now. So if you ask me which
I prefer, why, 'tis obvious: the works

Featuring everyone's favorite ogre!
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jun 15, 2022 at 8:20 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 15, 2022, at 6:00 PM, Virginia Euwer Wolff <veuwerwolff at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > And it's in kind of sort of tetrameter. No pentameter in the bunch, unless my lit major brain has forgotten how to count. And the "them the slaves" is of course impossible. Shakespeare, you're safe.
> >
> > Virginia
>
> Good point. You’d think the AI program, with its machine learning and all, would know how to count feet.
>
> LH
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Jun 15, 2022, at 5:07 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >>
> >> Computational linguistics is advancing. The statement in the subject
> >> line was generated by a simulacrum of Shakespeare.
> >>
> >> Website: The Conversation
> >> Article: We taught an AI to impersonate Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde –
> >> here’s what it revealed about sentience
> >> Timestamp: June 14, 2022 9.46am EDT
> >>
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Nay, nay, I say! This cannot be,
> >> That machines should e'er surpass our art.
> >> We are the masters, them the slaves,
> >> And thus it ever shall be so!
> >> They learn, ‘tis true, but they learn
> >> Only what we bid them learn, no more.
> >> They cannot understand the heart
> >> Or beauty of our words, you see.
> >> So let us not give in to these
> >> Machines - they’ll never be as good
> >> As we are at creating art.
> >>
> >> If that reads a little like Shakespeare defending humans’ innate
> >> superiority over artificial intelligence hundreds of years ahead of
> >> his time, it’s not.
> >>
> >> But it is something almost as far out: an AI system trained to express
> >> itself like the bard. The AI assimilated his style and perspective by
> >> ingesting his plays – educating itself to give an opinion on AI
> >> creativity in iambic pentameter.
> >>
> >> “Shakespeare” was speaking as part of a debate held in the University
> >> of Oxford Union featuring AI versions of classic writers and literary
> >> characters.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> AI systems are also toiling in the graphical domain. Remarkable images
> >> are being created by the systems Dall-E 2 from Open AI and Imagen from
> >> the Brain Team of Google Research. The images are generated from
> >> prompts such as, “Avocados dancing, drinking, singing and partying at
> >> a Hawaiian luau”. If you have not seen these images I recommend that
> >> you take a look.
> >>
> >> Website: Quartz
> >> Article: The best examples of DALL-E 2’s strange, beautiful AI art
> >> Author: Nicolás Rivero
> >> Date: June 10, 2022
> >> https://qz.com/2176389/the-best-examples-of-dall-e-2s-strange-beautiful-ai-art/
> >>
> >> Article: Imagen: unprecedented photorealism × deep level of language
> >> understanding
> >> Author: Google Research, Brain Team
> >> Date: Undated
> >> https://imagen.research.google/
> >>
> >> Garson
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org