What would an AI text generator do with the first lines of literature’s greatest novels? / Jonny Diamond. Lithub Daily Nov 13, 2019

Neural networks are getting fancier and AI is getting scarier. And now we have a neural network that can do a pretty credible job writing copy (based on its inputs, of course, and a prompt). So look, I’m fine with using AI-generated replies in email correspondence (I don’t use them, but whatever), but what about fiction? The novels of Tao Lin aside, could a neural network ever really get at that ineffable human quality that animates so much of our cherished narrative art?
I plugged in some of literature’s most iconic first lines (in bold, below) to Adam King’s Talk to Transformer text generator to see what would happen. In some cases, the results are bizarre and bad, but there are definitely a few that would keep me reading. Scroll on for a glimpse of what’s to come (MFA 2040!). (Obviously, I graded the robot.)

James Joyce, Ulysses

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. There was no light, and the old man looked about him with an uncertain expression. He was an old man; the white hairs on his head stood out like a tuft of hair upon a man, and he had an old face, which was not old in the sense of being wrinkled.

“This is a most fortunate thing, Buck,” said Mr. Micawber, “for you are the only person who might help us.”

D-

C’mon, this is just lazy crossover fanfiction! Dickens in Dublin. No thank you Mr. AI.
*
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. It was too dangerous to venture out on the roads.

Hollie, who is a trained nurse, said: “I know how to make up an ambulance when I need to. But not this time. They had no choice. They were stuck. But I was so scared. I didn’t want to get in the ambulance. I couldn’t have done it.”

“They took me to a hotel and said, ‘There is someone at your hospital who wants to see you.’” ... [mehr] https://lithub.com/what-would-an-ai-text-generator-do-with-the-first-lines-of-literatures-greatest-novels/