How AI is writing books and music, but won’t be replacing humans any time soon

A growing number of creative types around the world are taking advantage of AI technology to supplement their works

‘When I have writers’ block, I use these programs to get unstuck,’ says one, but the consensus is that AI lacks the soul to create anything truly great

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AI is proving adept at writing functional creative pieces, but whether it can ever be used to replicate the soul and spirit of truly great works remains to be seen. Photo: Alamy

Published: 8:47pm, 10 Mar 2019Updated: 8:47pm, 10 Mar 2019

In Fear Machine, published in February, Chinese sci-fi writer Stanley Chen Qiufan used artificial intelligence – in the form of a text generator – to create some of the dialogue. Though none of the machine-generated content introduced new ideas to the short story, or took Chen’s narrative in a new direction, the voice and style behind the words were uncannily similar to those of the author.

Chen, 37, says the AI prototype, developed by investment firm Sinovation Ventures, has been programmed with his past works – a back catalogue consisting of more than one million Chinese characters.

Though the programming had to be adjusted a few times to attain the best outcome, Chen says the idea of using AI for writing is fascinating.

“Traditional literature is getting boring and is unrelated to our fast-evolving technological life. We need something fresh to stimulate people’s thoughts and feelings,” he says.

Chinese science fiction author Stanley Chen Qiufan used AI to help write one of the stories in his latest book, Algorithms for Life.

Other than Fear Machine, which is one of six stories in Chen’s short story collection Algorithms for Life, the Chinese writer also used AI to help him with A State of Trance, which was published last year in the Chinese bi-monthly magazine Fiction World.