CONTACT:
Megan Galbraith
(518) 276-6050
[email protected]
Creativity Ex Machina?
Brutus.1, a Computer, Will Participate in America Online's Human vs. Machine Writing Contest
TROY, N.Y. -- Brutus.1, a computer that can write short stories of up to 500 words, has been invited to participate in the world's first computer vs. human writing contest on America Online's popular site, the Amazing Instant Novelist. The contest begins Sept. 23.
Billed as a "Silicon Hemingway," Brutus.1 is the world's most advanced story-generating computer. Named for Marcus Brutus, who betrayed and killed Roman dictator Julius Caesar on the Ides Of March in 44BC, Brutus.1 can generate stories based on the notions of betrayal, deception, evil, and to some extent voyeurism. The electronic author incorporates many principles of artificial intelligence, logic, mathematics, plot structure, creative prose, and literary and grammar structures.
But is it a match for the world's most advanced human minds?
Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Minds and Machines Lab at Rensselaer, developed Brutus.1 and thinks literature could be the ultimate test of machine creativity.
"Somehow, people have the idea that chess is the litmus test to gauge how smart machines are," says Bringsjord, referring to IBM's Big Blue computer, which last year defeated chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov. "Chess is too easy," says Bringsjord. "I think computers can create literature and writing is the ultimate test of whether a machine can be considered creative."
To test this theory, the Amazing Instant Novelist (AOL keyword: novel or www.instantnovelist.com), has invited Brutus.1 to write a very short story-no more than 500 words-on the theme of "self-betrayal." Beginning Sept. 23, AOL members will have the opportunity to write a short story on the same subject. At the contest's end on Oct. 23, five finalists will be chosen by a panel of literary judges assembled by the Amazing Instant Novelist. The story written by Brutus.1 will be included among the finalists under a pseudonym. AOL members will then be able to vote on which story is best and which is the one written by Brutus.
"We need a modern 'John Henry' to put the computer in its place," said Dan Hurley, who oversees the AOL site (In 19th century American folklore, John Henry beat a machine driving railroad spikes.)
If anyone could beat a computer in a 500-word writing contest, it may well be Hurley himself, whose site grew out of his 16-year career as the world's only 60-Second Novelist. Back in 1983, Hurley sat on a Chicago sidewalk with a manual typewriter to write one-page stories for passersby, based on a brief chat. Hurley has so far written 22,613 of his instant life stories on sidewalks, at malls, at private parties and on AOL. He has compiled them into a book, The 60-Second Novelist: What 22,613 People Taught Me about Life (Health Communications, Inc., 1999).
Previous guests on the Amazing Instant Novelist's site have included best selling authors Nora Roberts, Peter Straub, and Jack Canfield.
Brutus.1 has been nearly 10 years in the making. In collaboration with David Ferrucci, senior scientist at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, Bringsjord devised a formal mathematical definition of betrayal and endowed Brutus.1 with the concept. Bringsjord detailed his work in the cover story of MIT's Technology Review (March/April 1998).
In order for Brutus.1 to generate stories outside the concept of betrayal, researchers would need to mathematically define other literary themes such as unrequited love, revenge, jealousy, and patricide. Brutus.2 might become a project for students in Rensselaer's Minds and Machines program, says Bringsjord.
Bringsjord's book, which he co-authored with Ferrucci, is called Artificial Intelligence and Literary Creativity (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999). In it, Bringsjord dissects the anatomy of Brutus.1, including the thousands of algorithms that constitute its "mind" and the mathematization of the concept of "betrayal."
The contest winner will receive signed copies of both books. If Brutus.1 wins, the top-ranked human will get the books.
CONTACTS:
Selmer Bringsjord, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
518-276-8815
[email protected]
Dan Hurley, The Amazing Instant Novelist, America Online
973-744-0234
[email protected]
Kathie Lentz, America Online
703-265-3286
[email protected]
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