/ 24 February 2023

Versopolis Podcast #1: AI poetry

Dr Tracey Guiry & Dr Zuzana Husárová


How is poetry produced by machine learning algorithms? Can poetry written by AI compete with human authors and win poetry prizes? What is the future of AI generated poetry and can it connect rather than divide? These questions are addressed by Dr Tracey Guiry and Dr Zuzana Husárová in their conversation with Dr Mitja Drab.

Dr Tracey Guiry has led creative and cultural organisations for over twenty years specialising in the creation, development and management of arts charities in the UK.  After launching Literature Works, the regional literature development agency for the South West of England, she is now the director of the national and international poetry organisation The Poetry Archive. The Poetry Archive produces, acquires and preserves recordings of poets reading their own work for future generations to enjoy. Last year, she worked on an AI project titled Collective Message presented at the World Expo in Dubai, where an algorithm which drew lines from 100 contemporary British poets was used in an interactive installation to explore whether a computer program could ‘express the complex nature of humanity through verse’.

Dr Zuzana Husárová is the author of experimental literature across various media. She has created sound poetry, interactive digital poetry, poetic performances and transmedia poetry. She holds a PhD in literary studies, does research in electronic literature and digital media, teaches at the Digital Arts of Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and edits a gender magazine Glosolália. She is also an ex-Fulbright scholar at MIT, USA, and has lectured at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, as well as Comenius University in Bratislava. Her poetry collection written by the artificial intelligence poet Liza Gennart titled Outcomes of Origin won the Slovak national poetry prize in 2020.

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