Occasionally we host guest posts on this blog. They are often topical, provocative or simply informative. This guest post by Dr. Iain Strachan is all three. As always, your comments and questions are welcome.
Can AI pass the Turing Test today? by Iain Strachan
In a Invisible Poets Road Show in Derby, Steve Wheeler asked me if I thought AI had passed the Turing test. I replied "Yes ... and No."
I had just read a poem "A chatBot named Christopher" about Alan Turing, where I had claimed that the answer is "No".
However, AI-generated poetry continues to fool us again and again. I have been fooled by it. I once praised someone's Villanelle on Invisible Poets that on closer examination turned out to be AI generated.
Why does this happen? I think it's to do with the way we interact with pop songs. I asked a member of my family "When you listen to a pop song, do you think about the words?" He replied "Not really. If I know the words, I'll sing along to the tune, but I don't think about what they mean."
I expect most people are like that. Pop songs have to be singable, so the lyrics fit the tune, and so we are only engaging with the words on a superficial level. So they need to flow smoothly, have simple rhyme schemes etc.
For thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men (John Donne), or
The soil/is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod (Gerard Manley Hopkins).
See how the strong syllables pile up with no light syllables between. The Hopkins also has enjambment, where the sense carries on over the line break. Song lyrics don't do this - normally each line stands alone.
It's the same with AI generated poetry. It is polished, and flows nicely; each line is self-contained. But, whereas with a pop song, you can find depth and meaning in the lyrics: a story told, or a telling metaphor, if you examine an AI poem carefully, you won't find any depth; it falls apart as a sequence of poetic sounding phrases and clichés strung together with no clear overall message.
So if you find a poem that seems super smooth and polished, take a closer look before you enthuse about it. Don't give the AI fakers their serotonin boost! If it's AI, it will fall apart and you'll find the words of my chatBot poem to be still true:
Chatbots today can't pass the Turing Test
Their show of understanding's fake, at best.
Their show of understanding's fake, at best.
Iain Strachan
Image used under a Creative Commons License
