If a robot can generate nonfiction on command, what could it teach us about writing fiction and poetry? 

Guardian writer James Bridle claims that we’re not thinking big enough about how technology can assist us through the creative process. “When we think about books and new technology,” he writes, “we too often think of flashy multimedia apps that add sound and fury but little true enhancement to literature. The word is still enough, but in a sea of data and experiences, which words? To what should our attention and imagination be drawn?”

“Robot writers could become co-authors of our most complex subjects, helping to write the narratives of climate change and political upheaval just as surely as industrial and financial colleagues are driving them.”

Indeed, as he points out, scientists are experimenting with using artificial intelligence for creative purposes, and currently, the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College is hosting a competition that challenges computer scientists to write code that generates human-like prose, poetry, or music.

Dan Rockmore, director of the Institute, said to NPR that he doesn’t expect above-average work. “I’m hoping a machine can generate an average short story,” he says. “I’m not looking for experimental short fiction. And similarly for a sonnet, I wouldn’t be looking for a random collection of things that had the right meter and the right rhyme scheme, which ... from some postmodern point of view might appear to be a great sonnet.”

Competitors have until March 2016 to enter: http://bregman.dartmouth.edu/turingtests/.

Photo credit: Arthur Caranta, Flickr.