Will Sci-Fi Bots Write the Next Great Dystopian Novel?

Intelligent robots might take on and do all of the hard work for novelists in the nearest future. Author and technology specialist Robin Sloan claims it is just a matter of time till AI are saddled with writing the majority of our documents, mails and even writers’ novels. While giving a talk at the Real Future Fair in Oakland, California, the writer of ‘Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore’, showcased an AI he tutored to write a dystopian science fiction novel. Mr. Sloan fashioned fed the writing robot a back catalog of science-fiction magazines from the 60s and 70s. The program internalized the material and learned the method of the old stories within it. The robot will now propose ways of concluding sentences and paragraphs. With a little help from the spectators at the event, however, Sloan made his robot generate the start of a dystopian sci-fi novel.

‘A long, long time ago from now in Oakland there was a robot that was built to destroy all the high families. The high families were the ones who owned the times of course. When they said it, it was summer. When they decreed — winter fell.’

Robots that make use of neural networks, which emulate parts of the human brain and are also competent possibly lead to AI that can replicate our writing style, he said. Using texts solely written by humans, these robots can explain how certain types of writing sound. ‘Surprisingly, you can teach a neural network on a huge body of text,’ Mr. Sloan added. ‘it could be the entire work of Charles Dickens, Wikipedia or; it could even be the entirety of the Internet.’ ‘They possess the ability to make use of sentence structure and join words together in rather appealing and persuasive ways — and I think surprising and striking ways,’ Mr. Sloan said.

Whereas the AI’s writing is not yet up to the standard of H.G. Wells, upcoming models could work as a helpful gadget for writing motivation, Mr. Sloan suggests. ‘I am undoubtedly sure, text editors will possess some version of this in years,’ Sloan said.

For instance, one of these intelligent programs could assimilate an entire archive of corporate mails.

The robot would subsequently propose suggestions – crafted in the style of the corporation’s – to workers under pressure to get their point across, Mr. Sloan said. It might even lend a hand in bouncing ideas with Hollywood screenplay writers drafting their next big chartbuster, he said.

Robots are more and more delving into the creative arts, with varying success.

Back in 2008, a computer attempted to write the next Great Russian novel, titling it ‘True Love,’ by juxtaposing the writing style of Haruki Murakami and the plot line of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina.’

Earlier this year, a computer program also designed and painted a new Rembrandt in the very style of the famous Dutch artist. And in May, Microsoft had to stop a Twitter robot named Tay that used the internet to study its conversation style. The plan backfired when Tay speedily learned to be racist.

Possibly the next generation of authors gets a boost from bots that do all the difficult work for them. A plan, brought to the fore by an American writer, is to utilize artificial intelligence to complete an e-mail, parts of a story, or another document, if a writer is searching for the best means to express him or herself. Programs that utilize neural networks (and machines modeled after the brain), or the so-called deep learning can be for the most part helpful, Robin Sloan, the writer of “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore”, said on the Real Future of the Fair.

Even though these A. I. programs might not have the ability to craft a work of genius like “A Tale of Two Cities’ just yet, they can get a feel for how certain types of writing by sound; “they could utilize the grammar and the language together in an appealing and convincing way — and I think that unexpected and beautiful ways,” Sloan said.

Sloan made an inscription from “bot” and had read all his older sci-fi magazines from the 1960s and 1970s. The program reads and teaches the styles of these old school stories, then, if a “bot” Mad-lib, suggests ways that sentences and paragraphs. Sloan worked with the public at the fair for generating the commencement of a story:

“A long, long time from now in Oakland, there was a robot built to destroy all the high families. The high families were, of course, the property of the seasons. When they said so, it was summer. When they had made a decision — the winter fell.”

To be honest, this is not Ray Bradbury or even a Spock fan-fiction. Something very alike to the writing of this bone might be a useful tool for gaining motivation, Sloan said.

For example, auto-complete programs to be able to read an entire archive of work e-mail, so that a person who is trying to get the point across will have suggestions that are in line with the corporate identity, Sloan said. Or maybe the next big movie hit will be written by scenario writers who are locked away in a room, bouncing ideas off each other and the writing of a bone, Sloan said.