ChatGPT Delivers A Poem About Nothingness

The Future and the Past. (Produced w/Photoleap)

As some of you may know I have been fascinated by the possibilities and limitations of Artificial Intelligence these past several years. As early as 2016 I wrote about a pair of Calum Chace's books on the impact AI will have on white collar jobs. Last year I played around with an AI bot called Sudowrite, producing a story and quite a bit of poetry. 

Kazui Ishiguro's book Klara and the Sun explores many of the issues associated with AI-powered robotics, and lots of digital ink has been spilled writing about the latest iterations of an AI writing program called ChatGPT.

In the art realm I have likewise been fascinated by a pair of programs that utilize AI to create illustrations and images. At the end of this page I will include links to some of the above essays and explorations. 

ChatGPT is not yet perfect. I asked it to write a short essay about the Duluth music scene and it included a venue that is shuttered and has been so for two or three years. 

Till an hour ago I essentially asked it questions and ChatGPT produced short essays. Then I asked it to write a poem for me on Nothingness. Here's what the machine produced.

A Poem About Nothingness

 

Nothingness, a vast and empty space

Where thoughts go to be erased

No sound, no light, no time, no place

Just an endless, blank erasing

A void of emptiness, a lack of form

A space that's never-ending

No beginning, no end, no seed, no norm

Just a boundless, endless, never-mending

No memories, no dreams, no hope, no fears

Just a limitless, endless, boundless, never-clearing

No past, no present, no future, no tears

Just a timeless, spaceless, endless, never-appearing

Nothingness, a realm of pure oblivion

Where all is lost and nothing is given

A realm of pure and utter nothingness

Where nothing exists and nothing is living

* * * 

Things I especially like about the poem include the assonance (e.g., oblivion / given) and also the structure. Notice the third line of each of the first three stanzas, and then a slight variation as we reach the conclusion. 

The opening grabbed me right off. "Nothingness, a vast and empty space where thoughts go to be erased." It's not an image that would immediately pop into my head. 

What do you think? I find it fascinating.

Related Links
My 2016 review of Surviving AI by Calum Chace
A Visit with Futurist Calum Chace on His New Book The Economic Singularity
Two Versions of The Comet, Light and Dark
Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun Is Another Stellar Achievement

I've also been collaborating with a pair of AI "art" bots. You can see some of the things "we" have created here on my Instagram page.