AI Poetry - AI Should Have Known Theme

Andi 0:01

You know, just the anecdotal, like pretty sure I remember this. Oh,

Tanner 0:04

no. Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah. She's amazing. Her poems are amazing. That's great. I'm not judging her poetry in general, but this specific one I'm not in love with.

Andi 0:19

It's mind games. Yeah. This is

Tanner 0:21

games. tricky.

Andi 0:23

this is where stuff gets dangerous. Yeah, because like I don't think that was a very good poem, Hello and welcome to, I should have known the trivia game show that can't be trusted. Each week, our Quizmaster will present you with four facts about a topic, but one of those facts is a lie, and we are doing AI should have known this month where all of our episodes are either about AI or generated by AI in part or whole. Then today our quiz master is soups.

Sups 0:54

Hey,

Andi 0:55

and soups. Will be presenting us with an episode on poetry. Three of these poems were written by humans and one of them was written by an ai. So that was a little different. So join me, Andy, and our other host Tanner, and seeing if we can figure out which one of his poems. Is artificial.

Tanner 1:12

Mm-hmm.

Sups 1:13

so today we'll talk about four poems written by four different poets from different generations. Mm-hmm. Of course one of them is purely created Ai. Mm-hmm.

Andi 1:25

Okay.

Sups 1:25

And I'll give you some context about the poet and the poem. You know, the meaning of it, why it was written when it was written.

Andi 1:32

Okay. But you're lying about that for the ai.

Sups 1:35

I mean, the poet is. Super real.

Andi 1:38

The poet existed, wrote poems, but not this one. Gotcha. Okay. So the poet is the ai. What AI did you use?

Sups 1:45

I used GT four, but I used Koala.

Andi 1:48

Okay. I'm, I'm excited to see if we can tell human from computer.

Sups 1:53

Alright. Right. Let's get started with

Andi 1:55

pq,

Tanner 1:56

Q the pq

Sups 1:57

P. P Q,

Andi 1:58

the pqq, the pub quiz question is new for season four. Sups is going to give us a pub quiz or a bar trivia style question that you might encounter if you are out and about. Yeah. To open up the conversation.

Sups 2:10

Okay. Who wrote the Epic Elliot?

Andi 2:13

Okay. This is a decently easy one.

Tanner 2:16

This is a Homer.

Andi 2:17

Yeah. The Iliad.

Sups 2:18

Yes. Also the author of Odyssey. Mm-hmm. These are the two great epics from Greek mythology talking about the Trojan War and the journey of Odyssey, the king of AKA after the war.

Andi 2:32

got me a little nervous when you started talking about The Iliad cuz I was like, yeah, that's technically a poem, but it's like book link. Yeah. Yeah,

Sups 2:38

Okay. So first I'm gonna read out the. Poem and then I'm gonna give you the title, the Poet, and the Context and all of it.

Andi 2:45

Alright. Okay. You really put your heart and soul into these reciting. Okay.

Sups 2:48

Okay, so the first poem, then the Virtuous King, ter, and All. Humility again in inquired of the illustrious marken day saying, oh, great money. Dow has seen many thousands of ages pass away in this world, there is None so long lived as thou at the time of the great dissolution of the universe. When this world is without sky and without the gods. All creatures with soul wrapped in meditation and entirely swallowed up in him, thou has. Many a time witnessed with thy eyes, the Prival acts of creation when neither the sun nor the moon, nor fire, nor earth, nor air, nor sky remains when all the world being destroyed look at like one vast ocean.

Andi 3:39

Wow. Wow. That's epic. That's pretty epic.

Sups 3:42

That is very epic. It's actually from one of the longest Epic poems. Called Maha Harra.

Andi 3:47

Okay. I was gonna say it is a

Sups 3:49

This is a translation written originally in Sanskrit just like the Greek epics. This was being narrated. This was not written down, so it was narrated by WA and written down by Ganesh. Because Ganesh could write with both left and right hands,

Andi 4:06

Wow. Okay. That's awesome.

Sups 4:09

it's one of the most important books for Hinduism. One of the longest epics has, I think about 1.8 million words 200,000 verses. The earliest preserved parts are from 400 BC. The Mohammad actually narrates the story of the 18 day Uruk war this book also talks about the four goals of the human life and contains the Bak Gita, so,

Tanner 4:32

Oh

Andi 4:32

Yes. It's epic. okay, now comes the game the AI should have known. So, definitely good choice by soups because he knew that we would not know this. I imagine there are some listeners in India who are either laughing or who are like, okay, next one, come on, you know?

Tanner 4:50

So the question comes down to, do you think an AI wrote this? And when I think about that question, my second question would then be, how would you get the

Andi 5:00

AI Yeah, that's kind of what I was, think part of this episode is about, is like, what did soups tell the ai? Mm-hmm. I think he could have told the ai Yeah. Write me a verse like

Tanner 5:11

this. Yes. Write me a poem from that and in the tone in the language.

Andi 5:15

I don't know, I feel like it's really tricky because like, it doesn't sound like a poem, at least in our definition of poem. And part of that Could be cultural, but I think a bigger part is that because it's not the original language. Yeah. So we're, hearing a translation, so it's like, I guess that would make it sound more AI like. Yes. Because it doesn't, it's a translation, it doesn't sound natural or beautiful. Mm-hmm. As probably it would in its original language. Okay. So it's

Tanner 5:43

This is, exactly what I came across in my research for my episode was like the closest we've gotten to an AI passing the touring test, which is like the traditional measure of when a robot is smart enough to trick humans into thinking that it's a human, It passed 33% of the judges because it was designed to sound like a Ukrainian boy, and English was its second language. Mm-hmm. So you kind of forgive some of the translation issues, some of the. Wording

Andi 6:09

Yeah. Cause it's the strange phrases.

Tanner 6:11

Right. And so I feel like this is exactly the same thing. Maybe it's translated or maybe it's a computer generated Poem. I'm

Andi 6:19

tricky. Playing a lot of psychology,

Tanner 6:22

I'm inclined to believe it though, so far.

Andi 6:24

Yeah. I mean, it'll depend on the other ones. Yes.

Sups 6:26

Well, if you didn't think of this as like a typical poem in the English literature sense, let's see what you think of the next one.

Tanner 6:36

All right.

Sups 6:36

My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun. Coral is far more red than her lips red. If snow be white, white, then her breasts are done. If hairs, bee wires, black wires grow On her head, I have seen roses. The Mott red and white, but no such roses. Sea eye in her cheeks and in some perfumes. Is there more delight? Then in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak. Yet while I know that music had a far more pleasing sound, I grant, I never saw a goddess go my mistress when she walks treads on the ground and yet by heaven I think my love as rare as any she be light with false compare,

Tanner 7:21

Aha.

Andi 7:21

Yeah. Is or Sha More Shakespeare.

Tanner 7:24

yeah.

Sups 7:25

this is sonnet one 30. By William Shakespeare. He wrote, I think about 1 54 of them. So in essence, a sonnet, a 14 line poem written in Iam Big Pentameter, which is a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. They all have a strict rhyme scheme. Mm-hmm. A, B, a, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F. And the last two lines. G. G.

Andi 7:51

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I guess the, the issue for me here would be, how could it be a lie? I mean, it seems very obvious to me that you would ask the ai, write me a sonnet like Shakespeare. Exactly. And then you'd have it, give it out. Yep. I don't know if this would violate the rules of the game though, cuz some of those lines felt very, at least some of the words were like, absolutely. That's the line. Hair, like wires is a pretty famous metaphor that he

Tanner 8:14

used and saying that she reeks. I feel like that's

Andi 8:16

to

Tanner 8:16

remember.

Andi 8:17

So like, tricky. Yeah. It's hard to know like Yeah. Cuz I feel very confident that like, I know a sonnet that does this where Shakespeare just basically like on his mistress about how ugly she is. It's like he basically calls her ugly for like four lines. And then he's like, no, but you'll get to live forever because of my sonnet. You know, people 400 years from now will still be talking about you. So it's actually better.

Tanner 8:40

I don't get that.

Andi 8:42

I think this one is real. Mm-hmm.

Tanner 8:45

Yeah, I think it's real because I'm pretty familiar with his sonnets and some lines, particularly in this sonnet. Yeah.

Andi 8:53

Yeah. But that's always dangerous.

Tanner 8:55

Yeah.

Andi 8:55

You know, just the anecdotal, like pretty sure I remember this. Oh,

Tanner 8:58

no. Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah.

Andi 9:02

I feel like I have to go back and count the

Tanner 9:04

Yeah,

Andi 9:04

like yeah. yeah. And count the rhyme scheme cuz I'm like, oh no. Like it could just be a poem that the AI wrote to sound like Shakespeare. Mm-hmm. I mean he wrote like hundreds of them. Yeah. But I could see it repeating some words and some things, but I feel like this one is, The original, but mm-hmm. It's mind games. Yeah. This is

Tanner 9:24

games. tricky.

Sups 9:25

Well, we are halfway through. Now let's take a leap all the way to the 1960s, seventies. Okay.

Andi 9:33

I'm afraid of the modern poems cuz modern poems are like, anything goes

Sups 9:38

In the echoes of a silent song, I stand unbroken, fierce, and strong. Through the winds of change. I sway yet rooted deep. I'll find my way with every step I claim my space a tapestry of strength and grace. In the face of doubt, I still believe a legacy that I'll achieve. As the sun sets and shadows fall. I heat the call my spirit tall, for within my heart a fire burns, and with each trial, my soul returns. I rise. I soar. I'm unconfined a beacon of hope for all mankind.

Tanner 10:20

hmm. is It by Maya Angelou,

Sups 10:22

absolutely still I Rise by Maya Angelou, a key Figure in American Contemporary Literature. she wrote over 167 poem through her lifetime. Still I Rise was published in 1978,

Andi 10:37

This is where stuff gets dangerous. Yeah, because like I don't think that was a very good poem,

Tanner 10:43

was it too predictable? Yeah. does the rhyming draw

Andi 10:47

so this is, this is my issue and this is the problem. Is that like, I've played with chatbots If you ask them to write a poem, it will always absolutely rhyme. And maybe I've just been listening to too many of them, so now everything that rhymes sounds like, an AI wrote it. Yeah. So like, I've read some of Maya Angelou's poems and I feel like they were more complicated. They were more like the language was more poetic. I mean, maybe this is one of her like easier ones, Very approachable. But you know, he's lying about one of these, right? This one to me is like, because of that rhyme scheme. That makes it feel very like

Tanner 11:22

Yeah. I felt the same way when soups was reading it. I felt like I. I could almost predict the next line, which to me sounds like a bad poem, but maybe that's a good poem. Like you feel it so

Andi 11:32

deeply that It's also very dangerous if this really is Maya Angelou, that we are just shitting on Maya Angelou. Like, who am I

Tanner 11:41

She's know what I mean? She's amazing. Her poems are amazing. That's great. I'm not judging her poetry in general, but this specific one I'm not in love with.

Andi 11:51

Yeah. I feel like I remember a poem of hers being called, still I Rise. But you also could just ask the robot to write a poem. Yeah. Similar to Maya Angelou. Still I Rise and then it's like, Oh, here's this line. You know, it's, it's very tricky about like was. What the prompt was,

Tanner 12:08

on. Yeah.

Andi 12:08

it's so dangerous. Yeah,

Tanner 12:11

I'm expecting more from her.

Andi 12:13

Yeah, it was a bit

Tanner 12:15

Mm-hmm. it makes me skeptical of it. Yeah.

Sups 12:17

Well let's move on to poem number four. Yeah. And let's see. Did you think I was a city big enough for a weekend getaway? I'm the town surrounding it. The one you have never heard of, but always pass through. There are no neon lights here. No skyscrapers or statues, but there is thunder for I make bridges tremble. I'm not street meat. I'm homemade jam. Thick enough to cut the sweetest thing your lips will touch. I'm not police sirens. I'm the crackle of a fireplace. I'd burn you and you still couldn't take your eyes off me cuz I'd looked so beautiful doing it. You would blush. I'm not a hotel room. I'm home. I'm not the whiskey you want. I'm the water you need. Don't come here with expectations and try to make a vacation out of me.

Andi 13:10

Wow. Yep.

Sups 13:10

Very famous poem written by rui Cor from the book, milk and Honey. so milk and Honey her first book and probably the most famous, has actually sold more than 11 million copies and Surt o Omar's Odyssey as the bestselling poetry of all Time, huh? wow.

Andi 13:27

wow.

Sups 13:28

She started out on Instagram. She's of Indian descent born in India, but. Grew up in the us she's of Punjabi doesn't, and in Punjabi there are no periods and there is no uppercase, lowercase. So you'd see all her poems. Everything is in lowercase. Okay. And she doesn't use any punctuation other than just periods.

Tanner 13:46

Oh, it sounds so modern.

Andi 13:49

Yeah. it's very modern.

Tanner 13:51

Yeah.

Andi 13:51

It doesn't rhyme,

Tanner 13:52

It doesn't rhyme. So it sounds more poetic, which is kind of funny.

Andi 13:57

Don't, yeah. Don't tell Yeah. Well that, that's kind of what I mean though, is like it always wants to rhyme. Yeah. I think obviously if you told it, write a poem like this person and their poetry doesn't rhyme Right. Then you probably could, generate something. Right.

Tanner 14:11

Right. yeah. It doesn't sound robotic to

Andi 14:13

me. It kind of has that vibe or sound of early versions of ai. like, where did you get that? Yeah. Which, like, when a robot does it, you're kind of like, Ugh. But when a human does it, you're kind of like, oh, it's a metaphor. I have to, yeah. Now it makes me think.

Tanner 14:28

Yeah. Like Like when it came up in this one, like I'm not street meat. It kind of makes you like what? That doesn't sound poetic. That sounds too

Andi 14:34

like, vulgar. Yeah.

Tanner 14:35

Yeah. It surprises you. Yeah.

Andi 14:37

I can't imagine. The robot coming up with that line. I'm not street meat, I'm homemade jam. is like, dang, robot. You know? That's a good line. That's a good line. Like, and the whole concept, like even if you fed it write me a poem like Ru Core, that poem was so thematically cohesive. Yeah. That, like that robot would've had to invent that theme. Yeah. And then also write the poem. Right. That seems human to

Tanner 15:03

me. Right. I was really banking on the fourth

Sups 15:06

one though.

Tanner 15:06

fake,

Andi 15:07

Yeah. Yeah, right.

Sups 15:07

Yeah.

Andi 15:08

But maybe soups came up with a theme mm-hmm. And then asked it to do that. Right. Write me a Poem. Like ru Core about comparing a person to a city. Yeah. So like, it's possible I guess but it's gonna come down to soups though, right? That's ultimately the takeaway here it's gonna come down to the human involved, If soups, wrote a good prompt Then maybe he could get the computer to trick me. Right?

Sups 15:30

I mean it boils down to what you input, right? The output. Which is funny cause

Tanner 15:34

then we're not exactly judging the computer. Yeah. We're kind of judging you.

Andi 15:38

yeah. Right.

Sups 15:39

now.

Andi 15:39

yeah.

Tanner 15:40

That's funny.

Andi 15:41

yeah.

Sups 15:41

I'm happy to be judged.

Andi 15:43

ultimately We're gonna have to guess which of those four poems actually were both soups in AI invented. I'm gonna say at this point, it's like, mm, having heard them, I'm like, soups. Give that thing a pretty good prompt because it's actually pretty tricky. But before that, can you just remind us of what the four poems were and then Tanner and I will guess which one we think is at least partially artificial.

Tanner 16:05

Alright.

Sups 16:13

The first poem was Mahar by VAAs. The second poem was Sonnet one 30 by William Shakespeare. The third poem, still, I Rise by Maya ou and the fourth poem, milk and Honey by Rupe. K.

Tanner 16:29

that is difficult.

Andi 16:30

I. Like when we look at the four poets he picked. Yeah. It's gonna be like, oh

Tanner 16:35

no. Yeah,

Andi 16:35

we picked the wrong one, then that's bad. Yeah. That's like insulting. I guess only one of them is still living, so maybe we should do that

Sups 16:44

that's,

Andi 16:44

That's the one that

Sups 16:45

way to look at it.

Andi 16:46

be

Tanner 16:46

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So

Andi 16:48

the

Tanner 16:48

Do you

Andi 16:48

I like to I feel like it's the safest to be like, the Shakespeare one's a fake

Tanner 16:55

But I'm also most inclined to believe that one. Yeah.

Andi 16:57

one actually is the one I'm most confident is a real

Tanner 17:00

Yeah. So who do you wanna offend? it.

Andi 17:02

feel like I'm gonna offend India.

Tanner 17:03

Yep.

Andi 17:04

No, I mean, I think it's the third one.

Tanner 17:06

Okay. I think it's the first one.

Andi 17:08

I do think the first one that's a tricky one if that one is the lie. I'm very curious what prompt he gave it for it to shoot out thy and thou,

Tanner 17:15

But that's kind of why I'm leaning towards that one, because if you told it a good enough prompt, like use thy or thou.

Andi 17:22

Yeah. Right's yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. I'm going with number three for the simple fact that it rhymed and it rhymed too perfectly. Yeah. And I feel like yeah, humans do that. Mm-hmm. But I also feel like that's a very. AI thing to

Tanner 17:35

do. Right. So knowing what, you know, And you expect more from Maya Angelou.

Andi 17:40

I mean, I'm not gonna, put value judgment there, I don't wanna offend anybody. But I'm going with that one.

Tanner 17:46

Okay. Number one for me. Number three for you.

Sups 17:49

Okay. Wow. very curious. Okay. Well, I think it's suffice to say we haven't managed to offend anyone

Tanner 17:56

Maybe

Sups 17:57

you're judging me,

Tanner 17:58

it's definitely offend.

Sups 17:59

me.

Andi 17:59

soups is offended. Offended.

Sups 18:02

Okay, so let me read something to you and then maybe you will guess which one was the lie. You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Because I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room. Yeah, just like moons and like suns with the certainty of tides. Just like hopes spring high still, ill rise.

Tanner 18:32

That's the

Andi 18:33

All right. There we go. Yeah. Okay. That's the real poem

Tanner 18:37

Yep.

Andi 18:37

like I said, it wasn't a very good poem. It's so much better. And there are words in there where you can clearly, like sassiness is a very specific, important word that carries a lot of meaning that I don't know if the AI would be aware

Tanner 18:51

Mm-hmm. Right. So

Sups 18:52

like,

Andi 18:52

What was the prompt that you gave the AI in order to produce that poem?

Sups 18:56

so I told the AI to write a holy original, poem inspired by the poetry of Maya Angelo, and only use original words and phrases and like no more than a hundred words.

Andi 19:08

Okay. And that's what we got,

Tanner 19:10

you get what you put in. Yeah.

Sups 19:13

the Rammings game, yes. AI loves It so much. Yeah. Yes. But Maya Angelou is also known for using similar rhyme skis.

Tanner 19:20

rhyme. Right. That

Andi 19:21

is a thing, right?

Sups 19:22

Yeah, so. Was it Maya, Angelo, or the quality of the poem? If I would've said something else, would you have believed that this was a real point?

Andi 19:30

So that was part of it was that like it was a recognizable poet who I have read before. So then that was a bit

Sups 19:35

Yeah. of a

Andi 19:36

tell, But yeah, it really came down to the fact that it wasn't a very good poem. the poem is very serious. Yeah. and you know, we're talking about real. Really important and serious topics. Mm-hmm. And then you have a silly rhyme scheme. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think a human would recognize that. Like if I rhyme too much or too, obviously it's going to detract from what I'm actually saying. Cause I'm not gonna lie, I don't really remember much of what the words were themselves. Yeah.

Tanner 20:00

But

Andi 20:00

I remember that rhyme scheme and being like, Ugh. Yeah,

Tanner 20:03

Yeah.

Andi 20:04

And so it's interesting cuz that was the question we were investigating was like, can you tell the human poetry from the, I keep calling it a robot, I'm gonna keep calling it a robot. The robot poetry. Yeah. And at least for this. I think you can.

Sups 20:15

you can.

Andi 20:16

it was fun though. It was a very interesting experiment. I liked it. So, yeah. So I should have known,

Tanner 20:20

I should have known,

Sups 20:21

I should have known.

Andi 20:22

Thanks for listening to, I should have known. we are on YouTube now. If you're watching there, do all the YouTubey things like subscribe, comment which one you thought was the lie if or if you figured out soups is lie. And if you're on a traditional podcast platform, We would appreciate a review And on Spotify you can also comment. So if you wanna let us know what you thought And we will be continuing with more AI generated episodes. Next week. I'm going to be your host and I'm going to be trying to get the AI to invent something and see if I can trick the boys with it. So stay tuned for that, and as always, thanks.

Tanner 21:02

Smash that bell.