Monday, May 08, 2023
Chat GPT takes on haiku
Those of you who follow this blog know that I care a lot about my haiku (look down a few posts) and I know it's a sensitive subject what actually defines haiku.
The other day I had a stroke of marketing luck, namely two people reading my book at almost the same time, and as a result my book e pluribus haiku anthology was at #8 in Japanese Poetry & Haiku (ebook ratings). I was so proud of myself, I pointed it out on Twitter and got ready to brag on it a little.
Then, I noticed that #4 was written by Chat GPT.
The book, Autonomous Haiku Machine, was actually written or compiled by Anthony David Adams (editor) in 2021, and he says clearly that the machine wrote all the haiku. When I encountered it at about one or two this afternoon, I downloaded it and read about half of it. Here are a few of them:
2.
The white egrets fly
to the faraway shores
of an evening sky
3.
I love my love
I love my love
I love my love
10.
I love the moon
I love the sun
I love the mountains
I actually kind of like the first one, though it doesn't have a season. Haiku should not only direct you to nature, but also be clearly in a time of year, if not a month or a week. For example, the words "tax day" can point you to April 15, but can't direct you to nature although the rest of your haiku may do that. Anyway with #2 we can see the egrets and can see nature so that's good. But that's where it falls apart. You can see #3 and #10 only get weaker. #10 has some nature, yes ok. But it really doesn't say much.
Well, maybe Chat GPT was a beginner at that point, and didn't have a database stored up with white egrets in it. Or, the database only had a white egret in it, and it didn't want to be repetitive.
Haiku is a wide open field. You don't need 5-7-5 syllable structure to call something haiku. You apparently don't need nature or even a season anymore either; in other words, I don't think this Chat GPT character is the only one flaunting the rules. I don't mind if this guy gets a few reads and a few sales out of being experimental with Chat GPT. In fact I'd like to see if one could get Chat GPT to count syllables, or to build 5-7-5 blocks so that one could make lots of haiku out of them. I know it's been done, electronic haiku, but I'm not ready to make a survey of what computers have written so far.
Tonight I checked in to the Amazon Japanese Poetry & Haiku page fully expecting this book to be #1, since I downloaded it this afternoon. Instead it was #13, and mine was now #14. They update their lists every few hours based on new sales and downloads, and it's very possible that they haven't counted my early afternoon download which might put this book up on top. If it's on top, #1, that's kind of a travesty, I would say, but it's an electronic travesty. By that I mean Chat GPT and the electronic world can fill up with tripe that is called haiku or called short stories, which doesn't make them good, but rather just fills up the space and makes it harder to find what's good. I'm surprised in reading the JPH boards that there is so much up there that isn't actually haiku at all, and isn't even poetry as far as I can tell, but rather more like anime cartoons. I haven't read them, though, and besides who am I to say? Sometimes they put stuff in there just because it's close, and people don't mind.
Maybe I should keep my eye on this trend.
The other day I had a stroke of marketing luck, namely two people reading my book at almost the same time, and as a result my book e pluribus haiku anthology was at #8 in Japanese Poetry & Haiku (ebook ratings). I was so proud of myself, I pointed it out on Twitter and got ready to brag on it a little.
Then, I noticed that #4 was written by Chat GPT.
The book, Autonomous Haiku Machine, was actually written or compiled by Anthony David Adams (editor) in 2021, and he says clearly that the machine wrote all the haiku. When I encountered it at about one or two this afternoon, I downloaded it and read about half of it. Here are a few of them:
2.
The white egrets fly
to the faraway shores
of an evening sky
3.
I love my love
I love my love
I love my love
10.
I love the moon
I love the sun
I love the mountains
I actually kind of like the first one, though it doesn't have a season. Haiku should not only direct you to nature, but also be clearly in a time of year, if not a month or a week. For example, the words "tax day" can point you to April 15, but can't direct you to nature although the rest of your haiku may do that. Anyway with #2 we can see the egrets and can see nature so that's good. But that's where it falls apart. You can see #3 and #10 only get weaker. #10 has some nature, yes ok. But it really doesn't say much.
Well, maybe Chat GPT was a beginner at that point, and didn't have a database stored up with white egrets in it. Or, the database only had a white egret in it, and it didn't want to be repetitive.
Haiku is a wide open field. You don't need 5-7-5 syllable structure to call something haiku. You apparently don't need nature or even a season anymore either; in other words, I don't think this Chat GPT character is the only one flaunting the rules. I don't mind if this guy gets a few reads and a few sales out of being experimental with Chat GPT. In fact I'd like to see if one could get Chat GPT to count syllables, or to build 5-7-5 blocks so that one could make lots of haiku out of them. I know it's been done, electronic haiku, but I'm not ready to make a survey of what computers have written so far.
Tonight I checked in to the Amazon Japanese Poetry & Haiku page fully expecting this book to be #1, since I downloaded it this afternoon. Instead it was #13, and mine was now #14. They update their lists every few hours based on new sales and downloads, and it's very possible that they haven't counted my early afternoon download which might put this book up on top. If it's on top, #1, that's kind of a travesty, I would say, but it's an electronic travesty. By that I mean Chat GPT and the electronic world can fill up with tripe that is called haiku or called short stories, which doesn't make them good, but rather just fills up the space and makes it harder to find what's good. I'm surprised in reading the JPH boards that there is so much up there that isn't actually haiku at all, and isn't even poetry as far as I can tell, but rather more like anime cartoons. I haven't read them, though, and besides who am I to say? Sometimes they put stuff in there just because it's close, and people don't mind.
Maybe I should keep my eye on this trend.
